.0^^ 



A' 



-N C* 



KEIGN OF TERROR 

HISTORICALLY AND BIOGRAPHICALLY TREATED. 



BSIX& 



A COMPEND OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 



PROM ITS COMMENCEMENT 



TO THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 



COMPILED FEOM THE MOST AUTHENTIC WRITBRa 



BY "R:^. MOORE. 



IZ.LOSTaA.TED WITH EIQBT PORTRAITS AMD FOUR EKeRAVIMGS. 

PHILADELPHIA : 
.^ JOHN B. PERRY, No. 198 Market Street. 
i NEW YORK^NAFIS & CORNISH. 

'^ 1846. • 




Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1845, by JOHN B. 
PERRY, in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United 
States, in and for the Eastern District of PenuBylvania. 



^- 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

In the present instance, it has been the object of the 
compiler to give the reader a book free from historic 
pomp, and merely comprising the actually important 
and interesting events of an era in French history. 
He has not attempted a philosophical view of the 
Reign of Terror — impressed with the conviction, as 
he is, that those who are fit to read at all, can, if you 
will only put things distinctly before them, be trusted 
to understand for themselves and make their own re- 
flections. He has, therefore, endeavoured to furnish 
a living and picturesque narrative of the heroes, ac- 
tions and times of this important period. History, 
it has been said, is philosophy teaching by example. 
No history, it has also been said, can present us with 
the whole truth; but those are the best histories 
which exhibit such parts of the truth as most nearly 
produce the effect of the whole. The former remark 
is Bolingbroke's, the latter Macaulay's; and in this 
work the compiler has been guided by the implied 
advice of the latter, in order correctly to produce 
the effect attributed to history by the former. 

The compilation, it will be seen, is based upon 
the works of Mignet and Thiers, but illustrated 
and annotated by means of various writers upon 
the French Revolution, both contemporary and of 
a later date. 

Philada. May 5, 1845. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. I. — Condition of France previous to the Revolution, Louis XIV. 
Louis XV. Licentiousness of tlie Nobility, the Clergy, and the oppressed 
state of the Common People. Prodigality of the Monarchs and their 
Mistresses. Madame Pompadour, Madame Diibarri. Immense Revenues 
of the Church. Lettres-de-cachet, &.c. Louis XVI., his character. Trou- 
bled Slate of Finances. Meeting of the States-General. Division be- 
tween the Deputies of the Tiers-Etat, or common people, and the De- 
puties of the Noblesse and Clergy, The Oath of the Tennis Court. Plots 
of the Court. Mirabeau. The Palais Royal, Excited state of Paris on the 
11th July, 1789. Camille Desmoulines. Fracas between the soldiers and 
the populace, Sunday, the 12th of July, Increase of popular excitement, 
Scenes at the Hotel-de-Ville, All Paris in commotion, a universal demand 
for arms, and the cry of" to the Bastille !" Attack by the populace upon 
the Bastille. Its defence. Arming, Tumult and Vengeance, The Bastille 
taken. Death of De Launay and of M. de Flesselles, Destruction of the 
Bastille, The tidings of these events as received at Versailles by the 
Court and the National Assembly, Eloquence of Mirabeau, The King's 
visit to the Assembly, Marie Antoinette. Rejoicings of the Parisians, etc. 

9— 3t> 

CHAP, II.— The King's visit to Paris, La Fayette commander of the Na- 
tional Guard. M. Bailli, mayor of Paris. M. Necker. Popular excitement. 
Massacre of Foulon and his son-in-law. Massacres and horrors per- 
petrated in the Provinces. Destruction of Chateaux and Property. Cruel- 
ties practised. Newspapers. Marat. A description of him. Formation 
of the Jacobin Club, its affiliated Societies. Further atrocities in the 
Provinces. Duke of Orleans, his wealth, his vices, debaucheries. Hi,s 
manner of gaining popularity, Mirabeau, his birth, his passions and im- 
petuosity; his expenses, imprisonment, intrigues, description of his per- 
son, his talents. He becomes a leader in the Assembly. Scorned by the 
Nobility. Paris yet agitated. The Palais-Royal, Barbers. Tailors. Ser- 
vants, Tumults and Famine. The populace suspicious of the Court. 
Arrival of the Flanders Regiment at Versailles, and banquet given to 
them by the King's Life-Guards. Splendor, Music. Abundance, Toasts 
offensive to the people, and bacchanalian orgies. Louis XVI. and 
Marie Antoinette present at these orgies. Wild enthusiasm of the Life- 
Guards at the appearance of the King and Q.ueen. Cockades distributed. 
Indignation of the Parisians in consequence of this Banquet. The pro- 
digality of it considered an insult to the public distress. Rumors of 
con.spiracy and counter-revolution. The cry of "Bread ?" in the streets 
of Paris. Crowds at the bakers' shops. Insurrection of the 5th of Octo- 
ber. The cry of "To Versailles!" Commotion. Fishwomen. Maillard, 
Immense concourse. The march to Versailles. La Fayette's life 
threatened. The mob at Versailles. They attack the Palace, Pursue the 
Q.ueen. Massacre of the Life-Guards. Jourdan. La Fayette. Tumult. 
The cry of "The King to Paris!" The Q,ueen shows herself on the 
balcony. Grotesque procession and return of the mob to Paris; sur- 
rounding the carriages of the Royal Family, etc. 37 — 61 

CHAP. III. — Accusations by La Fayette against the Duke of Orleans. 
Murder of Denis Frangois, a baker, by the mob. Robespierre, some ac- 
count of him. Execution of the Marquis de Favras. Confiscation of 
church property. Assignats. Efforts to dissolve the National Assembly, 
which declares itself permanent till the constitution is completed. All 
titles of nobility abolished. The fete of the Fcederation, on the 14th of 
July 1790, the anniversary of the destruction of the Bastille; festivities, 
illuminations, rejoicings. The royal family prevented by a mob from 
S 



b CONTENTS. 

going to St. Cloud. Preparations of Louis XVI. for flight. Bouilld. Mira- 
beau bribed by the Court, his magnificent entenainments, his ascen- 
dency in the Assembly, his eloquence, his illness, his death, his funeral. 
Flight of the royal family from Paris on the 21st of June 179J. Con- 
sternation of Paris on the following morning. Placards. Thomas Paine, 
The Jacobins. Journey of the royal family. Slopped at Varennes by 
Drouet, the postmaster of that town. Return of the royal family 
surrounded by a great rabble, and amidst the execrations of the different 
towns through which thf y passed. Murder of the count de Dampierre at 
the side of the King's carriage. Barnave. Petion. Entry of the royal 
family into Paris, no acclamations, silence of the multitude. The 
assembly sufipends Louis XVI. from his functions. Speech of Robes- 
pierre in regard to the inviolability of the King. Speech of Barnave in 
reply. Placards upon the walls of Paris. The dethronement of the 
monarch, and the establishment of a Republic openly agitated in the 
streets, at the Palais-Royal, and in all public places. The 17th of 
July 1791. The red flag unfurled. La Fayette fires upon the mob in the 
Champs de-Mars. The constitution completed. Dissolution of the first 
Assembly on the 30th of Sept. 1791. Fetes, illuminations, rejoiciiijfs, 
Robespierre retires to Arras. 6'2 — SS 

CHAP. IV.— The Jacobin club. The Cordeliers club. The Feuillans club. 
Camille Desmoulins and George James Danton, some account of ihem, 
Robespierre at the Jacobin club. Opening of the new Assembly on the 
30tli of October, 1791. Petion elected mayor of Paris. Brissot. La Fayette 
unpopular. Reception of the Duke of Orleans at Court. He is spit upon 
by the courtiers. His rage and vexation. Roland, his wife. Dumouriez, 
Interview between Marie Antoinette and Dumouriez. Massacres at 
Avignon. Jourdan. Gibbets. Hanging of aristocrats. Havoc and anarchy. 
Terrible feelings between the aristocrats and patriots of Avignon. 
Placards. Massacre of the patriot L'Escuyer at the foot of the altar in 
the church at Avignon. Vengeance of the patriots. Jourdan closes the 
gates of the town and guards the walls. The body of L'Escuyer carried 
on a bier. Dreadful massacres. The Ice-tower. Pillage. Violation of 
women, wailing, pity, rage! The National Assembly, on the 20th of 
April. 1792, declares war between France and Austria. Murmurs against 
the court. Roland. Dumouriez, and the Girondists. Marat, his tirades 
against the priests and aristocrats. Excitement. Distrust. Decree of 
banishment against all priests that did not take an oath to the consti- 
tution, and a decree for the establishment of a camp of twenty thousand 
men around the walls of Paris. Hesitation of the King to confirm these 
two decrees, and the consequent exasperation of the Jacobins. Roland 
dismissed from the ministry. Dumouriez at the Assembly. Despondency 
of Louis XVI. The Jacobins. Bonnet-rouge. Anniversary of the oath at 
the Tennis Court, and immense gatherings in the suburbs. The proces- 
sion, pikes, tricolours, sansculottes. Mob defile before the Assembly. 
Proceed to the Tuilleries, and burst into the palace. Peril of the royal 
family. Louis the XVI. Marie Antoinette. Madame Elizabeth. Na- 
poleon Bonaparte. La Fayette. The Jacobins burn La Fayette in eflSgy. 
Approach of the Prussian army, excited state of Paris. Speech of Verg- 
niaud in the Assembly. The Marseillais. etc. 89 — 117 

CHAP, v.— The third fete of the Foederation. July 14th, 1792. Alarm and 
agitation. Marat, his views at this crisis, Barbaroux, some account of 
him. Robespierre, his retired manner of living, his vanity, his influence 
at the Jacobin club. Interview between him and Marat. Danton, his 
character, public and private. Arrival of the Marseillais in Paris, and 
riot between them and a company of royalists in the Champs-Elys^ea. 
Proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick. General indignation iu con- 



CONTENTS. 7 

sequence of it. Petitions for the dethronement of Louis XVI. In9ur« 
faction of the 10th of August. Santerre. Legendre. Robespierre. Danton. 
The Marseillais. Mandat. Alarm at the Tuilleries. Midnight. The alarm 
gun. The tocsin. Druuis beating. Artillery rumbling through the streets. 
Assassination of Mandat. Confusion. Terror. Bell answering bell. All 
Paris awake and astir. The suburbs in motion, Santerre. Westermann. 
The Marseillais. At daybreak the palace of the Tuilleriea is besieged, 
Louis XVL Marie Antoinette. The royal family seek protection in the 
Assembly. The palace attacked by the insurgents. The Swiss guards 
defend it. An indiscriminate massacre of the Swiss and the servants of 
the palace. The Assembly dethrones Louis XVI. He and his family con- 
fined in the Temple. Robespierre's demand for blood and vengeance. Ad- 
vance of the Prussian army. Terror of the Parisians. Danton. The bar- 
riers closed. The Reign of Terror proclaimed. Aristocrats arrested. Mas- 
sacre of the priests. Billaud-Varennes. The September massacres. The 
Princess Lamballe. her liead carried on a pike to the windows of the 
Temple. 118—147 

CHAP. VI. — Massacres. Flight of La Fayette from the army. Dumouriez. 
Massacre of prisoners at Versailles. Plunder of the jewel office. The 
elections in Paris. Robespierre. Danton. Marat, and others elected. 
The Jacobin Club. Louis XVI. ; and his family. The iron chest. The 
King summoned to the bar of the convention. He is separated from his 
family, and brought to trial. Discussions in the Convention. Placards. 
Excitement of the Parisians. The voting. The sentence; it is read to 
Louis XVI. Heart-rending interview between him and his family, oa 
the night previous to his execution. Assassination of Lepelletier. The 
death of Louis XVI. Shops pillaged by the mob. The Girondists. Popu- 
lar indignation against them. Insurrection of June 2nd. The Convention 
surrounded. The Girondists arrested. The provinces incensed. Terror, 
Emigration. Charlotte Corday. Description of her. She arrives in Paris. 
Her conduct. Interview with Marat. Marat in his bath. Charlotte stabs 
hira. Violent scene. Her arrest and trial. Her answers to the judge. Her 
sentence. Execution. The body of Marat, Funeral pomp with which he 
is buried, etc. 148—181 

CHAP. VII. — Flight of Demouriez. Escape of the Girondins. Revolt in 
the provinces. Terrible slaughter of the Vendeans. Carrier at Nantes. 
His barbarous executions. Great numbers in the prisons. The Repub- 
lican baptisms. The Republican marriages. Drowning in boats. The river 
clogged up with dead bodies. Massacre of children. Madame de Bon- 
champs. Madame de Jourdain, and her daughters. Mademoiselle Cuissan. 
Madame de la Roche St. Andre, Agatha Larochejaquelain. Executions 
and horrors at Lyons. Collot d'Herbois and Couthon. Destruction of pro- 
perty. Houses razed to the ground. Death proclaimed an eternal sleep. 
Impious procession, and burning of the Bible, the Cross and the commu* 
nion vases. Great numbers shot at Lyons. The fusillades. Extermination 
of aristocrats, Fouch6 and the Jacobins at dinner. Bodies floating down 
the Rhone. Thirty-one thousand persons perish. Atrocities at Bordeaux. 
Marseilles, and Toulon. Freron, Executions at Arras and towns in the 
north of France, Joseph Lebon, his cruelty, his orgies, his travelling tri- 
bunal and guillotine, his hatred of the aristocrats, his sanguinary oppres- 
sion, etc.; Robespierre, Danton. The prisons of Paris become filled with 
rank and beauty. Description of how the prisoners passed their time. 
Fouquier-Tinville. Daily executions. The gardens of the Luxembourg. 
Wives of the prisoners. The Conceirgerie. The wife of a prisoner dashes 
out her brains. The theatres, and places of amusement. Papers and pamph- 
lets published against the aristocrats. The Convention. The clubs. Violent 
outcry of the Jacobins against Marie Antoinette, against the Girondins. 
against the Duke of Orleans. J. R. Hebert, his abuse of Marie Antoinette. 



8 



CONTENTS. 



She is separated from her son, and removed from the Temple to the 
ConcJergerie. Simon, a shoemaker, placed over the dauphin. His inhu- 
man treatment of the boy, etc. Marie Antoinette brought to trial. The 
accusation against her by Fouqiiier-Tinville and by Hebert. Her replies. 
The witnesses. Clamours of the Jacobins. Her condemnation. Her 
execution. 182—207 

CHAP. VIII. — Terror. Placards. Proclamations. Power of the Jacobins. 
Distresses throughout the provinces. The Revolutionary army. The pea- 
sants pillaged, and their sons forced into the army, Liberty! Equality ! 
Definition of suspected persons. Triumph of the Jacobins. Trial of the 
Girondins. Vegniaud. Brissot. The Girondins conducted back to theCon- 
ciergerie. Their Last Supper. The Marseilles hymn. Eloquence of Verg- 
niaud. Valaz6's dead body. The Girondins executed. Hardships endured 
by the other Girondins in the provinces. They are hunted by the Jaco- 
bins, and live in cellars, garrets, and caves. Petion and Barbaroux, ' 
Louvet. The Duke of Orleans brought to trial. His conduct previous to 
his execution, Robespierre wishes to marry his daughter. His death on 
the 6th of November. 1793. Madame Roland brought to trial. Her coura- 
geous demeanor on the death-cart, her beauty, her death ; The suicide 
of her husband. M. Bailli brought to trial, his condemnation. Hatred 
of the Jacobins towards him. Is pelted with mud by them on his 
way to execution. His death. Destruction of the royal tombs, of the 
ancient monuments, etc. Pach6. Hebert and Chaumette. Christi- 
anity abolished. Grotesque and impious conduct of the Jacobins 
upon this occasion, The Goddess of Reason. Ceremony in Notre Dame 
and all the churches of Paris. Desecration of images, relics, and proper- 
ties of the churches. The busts of Marat and Lepellitier, Sunday abolish- 
ed. Every tenth day a day of rest. The calender altered. Increase of 
vice. Marriage no longer binding. All charitable institutions suppressed. 
Robespierre's inirigueB. His plots against Danton. Camille Desmoulins. 
The winter of 1793 in Paris. Distress of the lower orders. The ambition 
of Robespierre, etc. 208—229 

CHAP. IX.— Tlie French armies. Napoleon Bonaparte at the siege of Tou- 
lon. The Jacobins. The committee of Public Safety. Robespierre's policy. 
Nineteen of the Heberlists guillotined. Danion in the Convention. In- 
terview between Robespierre and Danton. Danton. Desmoulins, and 
others arrested. Speech of Legendre. Speech of Robespierre. Trial 
of Danton and his friends. Danton' sconduct before the tribunal. Con- 
demnation of the Dantonists. Conduct of Danton on the scaffold, etc. 
Robespierre now reigns alone. Forty to eighty persons daily executed in 
Paris, Madame Dubarri. The Duchess de Grammont. The Princess Eliza- 
,beth. The Reign of Terror in all its horrors J Extracts fronri the list of the 
condemned. Disgust of the inhabitants in consequence of the executions. 
The prisons filled. An aqueduct dug to drain off the blood from the guil- 
lotine. Four men daily employed in emptying the blood into a reservoir. 
An attempt to assassinate Robespierre by Cecille Renault. Attempt to 
assassinate Collot d'Herhois. Festival of the Supreme Being on the 8th of 
June 1794. Pride of Robespierre. He is suspected of aspiring to a dic- 
tatorship. His plans are thwarted by his colleagues in the Committee. 
He absents himself from their deliberations, and surrounds himself with 
his Jacobin followers at the club, St. Just. Robespierre in the Convention. 
At the club. David the painter. Henriot. The 27th of July, St. Just in 
the tribune. Thrilling scene in the Convention, Robespierre arrested, 
Henriot on horseback, All Paris in alarm. Night, The IJotel-de-Ville. 
Robespierre rescued. Scene on the Place de Greve. He and his accom- 
plices retaken. Their execution, etc. Jacobinism in the United Slates. 
Paris after the fall of Robespierre, Prudhomme's account of the victims. 
Society, Napoleon Bonaparte, Remarks, etc, etc, 230—274 



THE 

REIGN or TERROR 



CHAPTER I. 

Condition of France previous to the Revolution — Louis XIV. — Louis 
XV.— Licentiousness of the Nobihty, the Clergy, and the op- 
pressed state of the Common People — Prodigahty of the Mon- 
archs and their Mistresses — Madame Pompadour — Madame Du- 
barri — Immense Revenues of the Church — Lettres-de-Cachet, &c. 
— Louis XVI. — His character— Troubled State of Finances — 
Meeting of the States-General — Division between the Deputies of 
the Tiers-Etat, or Common People, and the Deputies of the No- 
blesse and Clergy — the Oath of the Tennis Court — Plots of the 
Court — Mirabeau — The Palais Royal— Excited State of Paris on 
the 11th of July. 1789 — Camille Desmoulins— Fracas between the 
Soldiers and the Populace— Sunday, the r2th of July— Increase 
of Popular Excitement — Scenes at the Hotel-de-Ville — All Paris 
in commotion, a universal demand for arms, and the cry of " to the 
Bastille !" — Attack by the Populace upon the Bastille — Its Defence 
— Arming, Tumult and Vengeance — The Bastille taken — Death 
of De Launay and of M. de Flesselles — Destruction of the Bas- 
tille — ^The Tidings of these Events as received at Versailles by 
the Court and the National Assembly — Eloquence of Miribeau — 
The King's Visit to the Assembly — Marie Antoinette— Rejoicings 
of the Parisians, &c. 

" The people," says the greatest of French states- 
men, " never revolt from fickleness, or the mere desire 
of change. It is the impatience of suffering which 
alone has this effect." Subsequent events have not 
falsified the maxim of Sully, though they have shown 
that it requires modification. If the condition of the 
lower orders in France, anterior to the Revolution, is 



10 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

examined, it will not be deemed surprising that a con- 
vulsion should have arisen ; and if humanity sees 
much to deplore in the calamities it produced, it will 
find much consolation in the grievances it has re- 
moved.* 

The government of France, from the reign of Louis 
XIV. to the Revolution, was arbitrary rather than des- 
potic ; for the monarchs had much greater power than 
they exercised ; their immense authority was resisted 
only by the feeblest barriers. The crown disposed of 
the person by lettres-de-^^achet ; of property by con- 
fiscations ; of income, b^ imposts. In this enslaved 
state was the kingdom^lmd also most wretchedly or- 
ganized. Divided into three orders, which were again 
subdivided into several classes, the nation was aban- 
doned to all the evils of despotism, and all the miseries 
of inequality. The nobility were divided into cour- 
tiers who lived on the favor of the prince, or, in other 
words, on the labors of the people ; and who obtained 
either the governments of the provinces, or high sta- 
tions in the army — upstarts, who directed the admin- 
istration, and made a trade of the provinces ; lawyers 
who administered justice, and monopolized its ap- 
pointments ; and territorial barons, who oppressed the 
country by the exercise of their private feudal privi- 
leges, which had displaced the general political right. 
The clergy were divided into two classes, of which 
one was destined for the bishopricks and abbacies, and 
their rich revenues, the others to apostolic labors, and 
to poverty. The tiers-etat, (the third estate, or com- 
mon people,) borne down by the court, and harassed 
by the nobility, was itself separated into corporations, 
which retaliated upon each other the evils and the op- 
pression they received from their superiors. They 
possessed scarcely a third part of the soil, upon which 
they were compelled to pay feudal services to their 
lords, tithes to the priests, and imposts to the king. In 
compensation for so many sacrifices, they enjoyed no 

♦ Alison's History of Eirope. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 11 

rights, had no share in the administration, and were 
admitted to no public employments.* 

Louis XIV., by his lavish prodigality, in supporting 
his courtiers and mistresses, carrying on expensive 
wars, and his personal splendor, plunged the financial 
affairs of the nation into difficulties ; and he himself 
saw, before the close of his career, that tyranny, even 
in its success, exhausts its means, and that it devours 
in advance the resources of the future. Under his 
successor, Louis XV., anarchy was introduced into 
the bosom of the court, the government feill into the 
hands of mistresses, the sovereign power rapidly de- 
clined, and opposition was every day making new 
progress. The most celebrated of this monarch's mis- 
tresses were Madame de Pompadour and the Countess 
Dubarri. Madame de Pompadour, whose maiden 
name was Jane Antoinette Poissan, was married at an 
early age to Lenormand d'Etoiles, but the king became 
enamoured of her, and money silenced her husband. 
The king at first provided her with a house at Ver- 
sailles; but afterwards gave her apartments in the 
chateau, where each year her extravagances increased. 
Though avaricious by instinct, Louis was prodigal 
through weakness ; he gave her six estates, besides 
splendid hotels in Paris, Fontainebleu, and Compeigne, 
where she amassed such a considerable quantity of 
furniture and other valuables, that, after her death, 
the sale occupied each day during the space of twelve 
months. He gave her a pension of fifteen hundred 
thousand livres, besides daily presents ; independently 
of which she had six hundred thousand livres to en- 
able her to have her table always served for the recep- 
tion of her royal lover, who also created her Marchi- 
oness of Pompadour. She possessed the talent of 
amusing the indolent king, who frequently remarked 
that she made the time pass quickly; and she con- 
ceived the most ingenious artifices to divert him. He 
finally resigned the reins of government into her 



* Mignet's History of the French Revolution. 



12 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

hand ; she nominated ministers, and was the distribu- 
ter of all the royal gifts and government employments. 
Private profligacy increased at court, public disorders 
augmented throughout the kingdom. There were 
troubles in the church, schisms among the bishops, 
agitations among the magistracy, discord among fam- 
ilies, and disturbances among the people. 

Madame de Pompadour, after ruling France for 
twenty years, finished her days at the palace of Ver- 
sailles, in the year 1764. Four years after, Louis be- 
came attached to the young and beautiful wife of the 
Count Dubarri, whose prodigality was equally exces- 
sive with that of Pompadour. She always used gold 
plate, and possessed a cup of that metal of enormous 
value, which was given her by the king. She had a 
carriage which cost fifty-two thousand francs. The 
king gave her a boquet of diamonds valued at three 
hundred thousand francs, and also a dressing-table of 
massive gold, surmounted by two cupids of the same 
metal holding a crown enriched with precious stones, 
and so ingeniously disposed that she could not look on 
the mirror without beholding herself crowned. Inde- 
pendently of these prodigalities, she gave at play 
drafts for large sums at sight, which the court-banker 
paid with greater exactitude than the governmental 
expenses. To meet the exigencies of her husband and 
brother-in-law, she drew more than eighteen millions 
from the treasury, and squandered the public funds as 
her desires or caprices prompted.* Her extravagance 
continued until the death of the king in 1774, when 
the unfortunate Louis XVI. ascended the throne. 

Ever since the days of Louis XIV., the nobility and 
gentry had been in the habit of running into scanda- 
lous and enormous expenses, which, instead of pay- 
ing, they availed themselves of their influence at court 
to be exempted from satisfying the claims of their 
creditors, whom they found various means of haras- 
sing, tormenting or evading. Every petty privilege 

* The Queens and Royal Favorites, by Mrs. Bush. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 13 

was kept up with an invidious industry. All places 
of honor or profit in church and state, were occupied, 
as were also those in the navy and army, by the no- 
bility ; and the roturier, as he was called by way of 
contempt, learned from infancy to hate a race of men 
who seemed born only to humiliate and oppress the 
simple citizen. Under the most familiar and affable 
outward show that the nobleman might choose to ex- 
hibit towards individuals of the third-estate, there was 
invariably something to remind the latter of their re- 
lative situation and his nobility. Such was the case 
in the common affairs of society, and in case of any 
injury received, redress was out of the reach of the 
roturier ; for if he appealed to the king in council, he 
had ten chances to one against him, decision being 
generally in favor of the nobleman. So strong wasr 
the prejudice of rank against the common order of 
people, that, however wealthy families of the latter 
might be, they were strictly kept out of the circles 
of the court and aristocracy. Glaring were the ex- 
penses and luxury of the court, where the prodigality 
of Louis XIV. was equalled, but not imitated. " The 
fourteenth Louis was great even in his follies ; he wac 
an encourager of merit and talent of every descrip 
tion, and, by a kind of theatrical manceuvre, rendere(? 
his court the envy and admiration of all Europe. The 
palace of Versailles was the grandest in Europe, itr.. 
gardens the most magnificent ; the flatterers who sur 
rounded him compared his age with that of Augustus.. 
and in so doing pleased the vanity of the nation a^ 
much as they pleased the king. But the court of Ver 
sailles, in its latter days, paid not the slightest regard 
for public opinion ; it had all the cost, but none of the 
glory that marked the reign of the Grand Monarque : 
it rioted, revelled, and the people were taxed to sup 
port its improvidence as formerly. Overburthen^.d 
with these taxes, the people, throughout the reign of 
Louis XV., had repeatedly called for amelioration, hnt 
their remonstrances were unheeded by the court, 
which felt no inclination to retrench or economize ' 

2 



14 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

nor were the many abuses of the laws, of which loud 
complaints rose from the suffering people, reformed in 
the slightest. The expenses of the government con- 
tinued to increase, and the burthen upon the people 
increased in proportion. 

Besides, the immense revenues of the church, 
amounting to near twenty-five millions sterling, were 
for the greater part disbursed in paying the high cler- 
gy, who were enormously rich, or to maintain indolent 
and luxurious monks ; and a very small proportion 
applied to the payment of the poor and virtuous 
curates, who did all the hard duties of the church, 
though they received so few of its good things. Many 
of the high clergy entered into all the fashionable vices 
of the age, one of which was to turn religion itself 
into ridicule ; at the same time they neglected most 
of those moral duties which are imposed upon every 
member of society, but more particularly on men 
whose care it ought to be to instruct and improve 
others by precept and example. Their selfishness in 
matters of interest was but ill calculated to conciliate 
the minds of their fellow citizens, who considered that 
if men in a state of celibacy required so much money, 
and were so tenacious of its possession, those who 
had families to maintain, and were obliged to pay 
them, were in but a pitiable state. 

These abuses, arising out of the disproportioned pri- 
vileges of the nobility and clergy, who were exempted 
from contributing to the necessities of the state ; the un- 
equal mode of levying the taxes ; and, above all, the total 
absorption of every right and authority in the person of 
the sovereign ; the danger to personal freedom from the 
tyranny of a lettre de cachet — these were too gross in 
their nature, and too destructive in their consequences, 
to have escaped deep thought on the part of reflecting 
persons, and hatred and dislike from those who suf^ 
fered more or less under the practical evils. The de- 
spotic power of the lettre-de-cachet, (a private letter, 
or mandate issued under the royal signet for the ap- 
prehension of individuals obnoxious to the Court,) 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 15 

which gave the monarch the right of banishing or im- 
prisoning his subjects at his wiJJ, and which had been 
basely used in many instances, was one of the abuses 
of thie royal authority against which popular indigna- 
tion particularly expressed itself 

Thus, by those general causes which had been in- 
creasing in force for so many centuries, the minds of 
men were prepared for a new order of things; and 
certainly our surprise at its violence and rapidity will 
be very considerably diminished, when we find so 
many causes operating in one direction, and that di- 
rection under the idea of procuring happiness and 
liberty. * 

The aristocratic pride of the nobility was especially 
galling to the self-love of the commoners, who, im- 
mensely rich from commerce or banking, had all the 
means of luxury, pomp and display, that the others 
had, but found themselves still considered not upon an 
equality. The social tyranny of the noblesse, the old 
privileges that they maintained, was hateful to the new 
wealth — and to the new knowledge which the learned 
men of France had disseminated so generally through- 
out the middle classes. Every thing indicated the ap- 
proach of no common revolution ; of a revolution 
destined to change, not merely the form of the govern- 
ment, but the distribution of property and the Whole 
social system; of a revolution, the effects of which 
were to be felt at every fireside in France. In the 
foremost of the Revolution were the moneyed men, 
and the men of letters — the wounded pride of wealth, 
and the wounded pride of intellect. An immense mul- 
titude, made ignorant and cruel by oppression, was 
raging in the rear. The success of republicanism in 
America, too, encouraged the spirit of revolution in 
France, and carried to the height the enthusiasm of 
speculative democrats, f 

At the accession of the sixteenth Louis, France was 
beyond example wretched in the condition of her 

* Pfeyfair, t Macaday. 



16 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

finances, the evil having grown out of the luxury and 
improvidence of the two preceding monarchs. The 
revenue of the government amounted to twenty mil- 
lions sterling (i?f90,000,000 in round numbers ;) but the 
expenditure exceeded the revenue about two millions 
and a half; (-$11,000,000.) Loans of money were ef- 
fected, every new one attended with inconveniences; 
and nothing is more self-evident than that an accumu- 
lation of inconveniences must finish with destroying the 
system in which it arises — ^just as the man who has con- 
tinual recourse to mortgaging his property, must finish 
in the end by ruining himself, however great his resources 
may have originally been. Ameliorations now became 
indispensable, were loudly demanded, and Louis XVI., 
who was a man of pure manners and inexpensive 
habits, felt the public necessities, and made it his glory 
to satisfy them. But it was as difficult to operate 
good as to continue evil. He had just views and an 
amiable disposition, but was without decision of cha- 
racter, and had no perseverance in his measures. His 
projects of amelioration encountered obstacles from 
his courtiers which he had not foreseen, and which he 
could not v^anquish.* His reign, up to the period of 
the States-General, was a long tissue of improvements, 
which produced no result. Turgot, Malesherbes, 
Neclier, Calonne and Brienne were successively chosen 
prime minister ; each failed in relieving the country of 
embarrassments, and it was finally evident that the 
States-General had become the only means of govern- 
ment, and the last resource of the throne. Accordingly 
the 5th of May, 1789, was appointed for the opening 
of the States-General, at the palace of Versailles, in a 
hall called the Menus Plaisirs, where the dresses be- 

* " Besides the domestic and household expenses of the sovereign, 
which, so far as personal, were on the most moderate scale, the pub- 
lic mind was much more justly revolted at the large sum yearly 
squandered among the needy coiirtiens an^ dependents. The king 
had endeavoured to abridge this list of gratuities and pensions, but 
the system of corruption, which had prevailed for two centuries, waa 
not to be abolished in an instant." — Scott's Napoleon. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 17 

longing to the opera and the theatre of the palace had 
formerly been kept. On that day an immense multi- 
tude from all parts resorted to Versailles ; the occasion 
was magnificent, the pomp of decoration, the chant- 
ings of music, the benevolent and satisfied air of the 
King, the beauty and noble deportment of the Queen, 
and, above all, the common expectations, inspired 
and animated all minds. Of the commons, or tiers- 
etat, there were 661 deputies ; nobles 285 ; clergy 308 ; 
total 1254. The clergy and the nobility, at the very 
outset, refused to act in concert with the commons. 

After the first day, which was rather a day of cere- 
mony than business, the deputies of the nobles, and of 
the dergy, retired to two adjoining halls of a smaller 
size, which were prepared for them ; the deputies of 
the third-estate, being the most numerous, remaining in 
the large hall, or hall of general assembly. This hall 
was capable of containing two thousand persons, so 
that there was room for the curious of all descriptions 
to witness their debates ; and a crowd of all ranks 
came every day from Paris to witness what passed, 
returning with the tidings to the capital ; consequently 
the debates and reasonings of the third-estate, so pop- 
ular from the cause they tended to support, were wide- 
ly spread abroad, and repeated and discussed with 
eagerness and enthusiasm by the whole Parisian pop- 
ulation. The reasonings of the nobility and clergy, 
less popular from their nature, but not less eloquent, 
were little known, and inspired no interest. 

Five weeks passed in useless debates concerning 
the form in which the estates should vote; during 
which period the tiers-etat showed, by their boldness 
and decision, that they knew the advantage which 
they held, and were sensible that the other bodies, if 
they meant to retain the influence of their situation in 
any shape, must unite with them ; and this came to pass 
accordingly. The tiers-etat were joined by the whole 
body of the inferior clergy, and by a few of the nobles, 
and on the 17th of June J 789, proceeded to constitute 
themselves the legislative body, exclusively competent 

2* 



18 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

in itself to the entire province of legislation ; and re- 
nouncing the name of the Third-Estate, which remind- 
ed men that they were only one out of three bodies, 
they adopted, by a majority of 491 to 90, that of the 
National Assembly, and avowed themselves the sole 
representatives of the people of France. 

This bold measure alarmed the Court; the aristocracy 
immediately threw themselves at the feet of the king, 
imploring him to repress the audacity of the tiers-etat, 
and to support their rights, which were attacked. They 
now proposed to do without the States-General, and so- 
licited him to dissolve them, promising to assent to all the 
taxes. Louis surrounded by the princes and the queen, 
was hurried off to Marly, (a royal residence some dis- 
tance from Versailles,) where they endeavoured to ex 
tort from him some rigorous measure against the ef- 
frontery, as they considered it, of the tiers-etat. Neck- 
er who had been recalled to the post of minister, at- 
tached to the popular cause, confined himself to useless 
remonstrances, the purport of which the king saw the 
justice of when his mind was left free, but the effect of 
which the Court soon took care to supplant in his mind. 
Necker, so soon as he saw the necessity for the inter- 
ference of the royal authority, formed a plan, which 
was that the monarch, in a royal sitting, should com- 
mand the union of the orders, but only for measures 
of general interest ; that he should assume to himself 
the sanction of all resolutions adopted by the States- 
General ; that he should condemn beforehand every 
institution hostile to moderate monarchy, such as that 
of a single assembly ; lastly, that he should promise 
the abolition of privileges, the equal admission of all 
Frenchmen to civil military appointments, &c. 

The council had followed the king to Marly. There, 
Necker's plan, at first approved, was subjected to dis- 
cussion. The council was suspended, resumed, and 
adjourned till the following day, in spite of the neces- 
sity that existed for immediate despatch. On the next 
day, fresh members were added to the council ; the 
brothers of the king were of the number. Necker's 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 19 

plan was modified; he resisted, made some conces- 
sions, but finding himself vanquished, returned to Ver- 
sailles. A page came three times, bringing him notes 
containing new modifications ; his plan was wholly- 
disfigured, and the royal sitting was fixed for the 22d 
of June. 

It was as yet but the 20th ; and already the hall of the 
states was shut up, under the pretex't that preparations 
were requisite for the presence of the king. These pre- 
parations might have been made in half a day; but the 
higher order of the clergy had deliberated the day be- 
fore upon joining the commons, and the court desired 
to frustrate this junction. An order of the king had 
been given, adjourning the sittings till the 22d, and, on 
the morning of the 20th, heralds, with trumpets, pro- 
claimed through the streets of Versailles that there 
was to be a royal sitting on the 22d, and no meeting 
of the States-General till then. A letter to this purport 
was also sent to M. Bailli, (President of the Assembly,) 
by the Marquis de Breze, master of ceremonies. But 
the members determined not to be thus thwarted by 
the court, and called upon the president to meet. M. 
Bailli, conceiving himself bound to obey the resolu- 
tions of the body over which he presided, and which, 
on Friday, the 19th, had adjourned to the next day, 
repaired to the door of the hall. It was surrounded by 
soldiers of the French guard, who had orders to re- 
fuse admittance to every one, and inside the carpen- 
ters were at work. The deputies collected tumultu- 
ously ; they persisted in assembling ;* some proposed 
to hold a meeting under the very windows of the king, 
others proposed the Tennis-court. To the latter they 
instantly repaired. It was spacious, but the walls 

* " The deputies stand grouped on the Paris road, on this umbra- 
geous Avenue de Versailles ; complaining aloud of the indignity 
done them. Courtiers, it is supposed, look from their windows and 
giggle. The morning is none of the comfortablest ; raw ; it is even 
drizzling a little. But all travellers pause ; patriot gallery-men, mis- 
cellaneous spectators, increase the groups. Wild counsels alter* 
nate." — Carlyle. 



20 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

dark and bare ; it had no roof, and was open to the 
weather. An arm-chair was offered to the president, 
who declined it, choosing rather to stand with the As- 
sembly. A bench served for a desk. Two deputies 
were stationed at the door as door-keepers. The 
populace thronged round with enthusiasm. Complaints 
were raised on all sides against the suspension of the 
sittings, and various expedients were proposed to pre- 
vent it in future. The agitation increased, and the 
extreme parties began to work upon the imaginations 
of the hearers. It was proposed by M. Mounier that 
the deputies should bind themselves by an oath not to 
separate until they had given a constitution to France. 
This proposal was received with transport, and the 
form of the oath was drawn up. M. Bailli first took 
the oath, and then tendered it to the deputies. The 
oath was this : " The National Assembly, considering 
that they have been convoked to establish the consti- 
tution of the kingdom, to regenerate the public order, 
and fix the true principles of the monarchy ; that no- 
thing can prevent them from continuing their deliber- 
ations, and completing the important work committed 
to their charge ; and that, wherever their members are 
assembled, there is the National Assembly of France — 
decree, that all the members now assembled shall in- 
stantly take an oath never to separate, and, if dis- 
persed, to reassemble wherever they can, until the 
constitution of the kingdom and the regeneration of 
the public order are established on a solid basis ; and 
that this oath, taken by all and each singly, shall be 
confirmed by the signature of every member, in token 
of their unshakable resolution." This form pronounced 
in a loud and intelligible voice, was heard by the great 
crowd of spectators who thronged around and over- 
hung the scene, looking down from a " wooden pent- 
house or roofed spectators' gallery, from wall-top, 
from adjoining roof and chimney."* The substance 

* " A naked Tennis-court, as the pictures of that time still give 
it ; — on the floor not now an idle teeheeing, a snapping of balls and 
rackets ; but the bellowing din of an indignant national representa- 
tion, scandalously exiled hither !" — Carlyle. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 21 

of the oath was repeated from one to another through- 
out the concourse, and when the deputies, with all 
their hands simultaneously outstretched towards their 
president, solemnly took the oath, applausive shouts 
rose in the air from all voices. The deputies then 
proceeded to sign the declaration which they had just 
made. Such was the celebrated oath of the Tennis- 
court. 

The advisers of the King wished to thwart the pro- 
ceedings of the Assembly, and having tried in vain to 
prevent the formation of it, they had now no course 
to take but, by associating with it, to endeavor to di- 
rect its labors. Failing in this, also, they persuaded 
the monarch that the security of his throne, required 
that he should reduce the Assembly to submission; 
that it was necessary, for this purpose, to call in, with- 
out delay, the troops to intimidate the Assembly, and 
keep down the populace of Versailles and Paris. 

While these plots were being contrived by the court, 
the deputies were beginning their legislative labors, 
and preparing the constitution so impatiently expected 
by the people throughout France. Addresses to them 
poured in from Paris and the principal towns of the 
kingdom, congratulating them upon their wisdom, and 
encouraging them to pursue the work of regenerating 
the nation. In the meantime, the troops arrived in 
great numbers ; Versailles presented the appearance 
of a camp ; the hall of the estates was environed with 
guards, and entrance prohibited to the citizens ; Paris 
was surrounded by different bodies of the army, who 
seemed posted there to be ready; as occasion might 
require, for a siege or a blockade. These immense 
military preparations, trains of artillery arriving from 
the frontiers, the presence of foreign regiments — every 
thing announced some sinister project. The people 
were agitated ; the Assembly rushed to inform the 
throne, and demand from it the removal of the troops. 
Upon the proposition of Mirabeau, an address, res- 
pectful and firm, was tendered to the king, but it was 
unavailing. Louis XVI. declared that the assemblage 



22 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

of troops was for no other purpose than the mainte- 
nance of public tranquillity, and the protection due to 
the National Assembly. He offered, moreover, to 
transfer the Assembly to Noyon or Soissons, and that 
he would himself repair to Compeigne. With such 
an answer the Assembly could not be satisfied, and 
especially with the proposal to withdraw from the 
capital and to place itself between two camps. The 
Count de Crillon proposed that they should ♦' trust to 
the word of a king, who is an honest man." 

" The word of a king, who is an honest man," re- 
plied Mirabeau, " is a bad security for the conduct of 
his ministers ; our blind confidence in our kings has 
undone us ; we demand the withdrawal of the troops, 
and not permission to flee before them. We must in- 
sist again and again." 

The 11th of July had now arrived. Necker, the 
prime minister, while at dinner on that day, received 
a note from the King, commanding him to quit the 
realm immediately. The following day, July 12th, was 
Sunday. A report was now circulated in Paris, that 
Necker had been dismissed, and sent into exile. The 
alarm spread rapidly. The people hurried to the Palais- 
Royal, in the garden of which place they were in the 
habit of congregating. This building, (built by Car- 
dinal Richelieu,) which was owned by the Duke of 
Orleans, and the garden attached to it, had been con- 
verted into one large elegant hollow square. The 
duke's residence occupied only one end, the remainder 
being filled with shops, taverns, hotels for lodging 
strangers, gaming houses, &c. The great bulk of what 
was let as lodgings was occupied by women of the 
town. The middle still continued to be a garden, in 
which were several small booksellers' shops, and some 
cafes, under painted pavilions. Around the whole 
building, looking towards the garden, runs a piazza 
of very elegant architecture, convenient in rainy wea- 
ther as a promenade. During the whole of the Revo- 
lution, this place was the theatre of as great, and 
sometimes greater importance, than the National As- 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 23 

sembly. It was from this garden that messengers 
were sent every two or three hours on important oc- 
casions, to communicate between Paris and the As- 
sembly. It was always filled by a multitude, which 
seemed permanent, and which was incessantly re- 
newed. A table served as a rostrum, any citizen for 
an orator ; there they harangued upon the dangers 
of the country, and excited it to resistance. 

This day, (Sunday the 12th,) the garden was filled 
— the people were in great agitation. A young 
man, (Camille Desmoulins, subsequently conspicuous 
in the Revolution,) filled with republican enthusiasm, 
mounted a table, held up a pair of pistols, and shouted 
" To arms ! to arms !" Then, plucking a branch from 
a tree, he placed it in his hat as a cockade, and ex- 
horted the crowds to follow his example. " Citizens," 
he cried, *' there is not a moment to lose ; the removal 
of Necker is a tocsin for a St. Bartholomew of patriots ! 
This evening all the Swiss and German battalions are 
coming out of the Champ-de-Mars to slaughter us ! 
There remains for us only one resource ; let us rush 
to arms !" This was approved, by the most deafening 
acclamations, and the chesnut trees of the garden were 
instantly stripped by ten thousand persons collected 
upon the spot. From the garden they repaired in tu- 
mult to a museum containing busts in wax. They 
took the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans, for 
it was reported he also was exiled; they covered them 
with crape, and carried them in triumph, spreading 
themselves into the various quarters of Paris, traver- 
sing the streets of St. Martin, St. Denis, St. Honore, 
and thickening at every step. They compelled all 
whom they met to pull off their hats. The horse- 
patrol was found in their route ; they took these for 
an escort, and proceeded in this manner to the Place 
Vendome, where they carried the two busts in proces- 
sion round the statue of Louis XVI. A detachment 
of the German Royals arrived, and attempted to dis- 
perse the populace, but was put to flight by showers 
of stones, and the multitude continued its course till 
it arrived at the Place Louis XV. Here it was attacked 



24 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

by a company of dragoons ; it resisted for some mo- 
ments, but was broken; the bearer of one of the busts, 
and a soldier of the French Guards, were killed ; the 
people were dispersed, a part flying towards the 
quays, others faUing back upon the boulevards, others 
throwing themselves into the garden of the Tuilleries. 
The dragoons, with drawn sabres, pursued into the 
garden, and charged upon persons who did not in fact 
belong to the crowd, but who were walking peaceably 
about. In this charge an old man was killed by a 
sabre stroke. The crowd defended themselves with 
the garden chairs ; the indignation became general, 
and the call to arms resounded through every quarter, 
in the Tuilleries, in the Palais-Royal, in the city, and 
in the suburbs. 

Terror, before unbounded, was now changed into 
fury. People ran, shouting " To arms !" and hurried 
to the Hotel-de-Ville* to demand weapons. During the 
night, the populace forced and burned the barriers, 
dispersed the gate-keepers, and afforded free access 
by all the avenues to the city. The gun-smiths' shops 
were plundered. Tumult was at its height; every 
man obeyed the dictates of his passion. Troops of 
laborers, employed by the government in the public 
works, (the most of them without home or character,) 
associated with others who sought in insurrection 
only the means of disorder and pillage, and having 
burned the barriers, they infested the streets, and 
plundered several houses. These were what were 
called the brigands. 

These events took place on Sunday the 12th of July, 
and in the night between Sunday and Monday the 

* Hotel-de-Ville, or Town Hall. Previous to the election of the 
deputies to the States-General, Paris had been divided into sixty 
different portions, called sections \ one church in each section was 
employed for the primary assemblies, who choose among themselves 
electors, who all assembled to choose the deputies. These sections, 
or districts, served as points of reunion to the citizens, and had the 
appearance of so many federal states, having the Hotel-de^Ville for 
a centre, to which representatives from the different sections were 
Bent 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 25 

13th. During the morning of Monday, the convent of 
the Lazarists, (St. Lazare,) which contained a large 
quantity of grain, was forced and plundered ; the es- 
pecial object of the mob being to rummage among the 
ancient armory that was also stowed away in this 
house. The armory was quickly plundered, and the 
rabble, wearing helmets and carrying pikes, were pre- 
sently seen in all quarters of the city. Before the Ho- 
tel-de-Ville the crowd was immense; they sounded the 
tocsin of the Hall of the Municipality, and that of all 
the churches; drums were beat along the streets to 
summon the citizens. They collected in the public 
places ; they formed themselves into troops, under the 
name of volunteers of the Palais-Royal, volunteers 
of the Tuilleries, etc. The enthusiasm inspired by 
continually speaking and acting in a common cause, 
and sharing a common danger, gave a sort of electric 
shock that was communicated from one eye to another 
throughout the whole populace ; but whilst the truly 
patriotic and virtuous citizen received this unanimity 
of movement as an earnest of the assurance he felt in 
the ultimate triumph of popular rights, the low and de- 
graded part of the population took advantage of it, 
and abandoned themselves to vicious and brutal ex- 
cesses. But virtuous and vicious, respectable and 
canaille, — merchant, banker, shopkeeper, mechanic, 
labourer, chiffonier, vagrant, — all assembled, and all 
that could get arms armed themselves. One common 
sentiment of indignation animated hundreds of thou- 
sands, and all were zealously active to secure the city 
against the attack that was, with good reason, sup- 
posed to be meditated by the troops. The districts 
acted in concert ; each of them voted two hundred 
men for their defence. They only wanted arms ; they 
searched every place where they hoped to find any. 
Before the Hotel-de-Ville loud shouts arose from the 
throng, and arms were repeatedly demanded of M. de 
Flesselles, the provost, who had at first resisted the 
demand, but now manifested great zeal, and promised 

3 



26 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

twelve thousand muskets that very day, and more on 
the following days. 

This assurance appeased for a time the people, and 
the committee (sitting at the Hotel-de-Vilie) proceeded 
with a little more calmness to the organization of the 
city militia. In less than four hours the plan was di- 
gested, discussed, adopted, printed, and posted up. It 
was decided that there should be a Parisian guard of 
48,000 men. All the citizens were invited to inscribe their 
names and become a part of it. The distinctive sign 
was to be the Parisian cockade, red and blue, instead 
of the green that had been adopted by the throng in 
the Palais-Royal the day before. But the people were 
waiting impatiently for the result of the promises of 
M. de Flesselles. The muskets had not arrived ; night 
was approaching ; they dreaded an attack from the 
troops which surrounded the city ; and they believed 
they were betrayed, when they learned that five thou- 
sand pounds of powder had been secretly removed 
from Paris, and that the people at the barriers had 
seized it. By-and-by, chests arrived inscribed " artil- 
lery ;" this calmed the tumult, and the crowd escorted 
the chests to the Hotel-de-Ville, believing them to con- 
tain the expected muskets; they opened them and 
found them filled with old linen and bits of wood. At 
this sight they were fired with indignation against the 
provost, who declared he had been deceived. To ap- 
pease them, and in order to gain time, he sent them to 
the Carthusians' monastery, with the assurance that 
arms would be found there. The astonished Carthu- 
sians admitted the furious mob, conducted them into 
their retreat, and finally convinced them that they pos- 
sessed nothing of the kind mentioned by the provost. 
More exasperated than ever, the rabble now returned 
with shouts of " treachery ;" and the committee saw 
that they had no other resources for arming Paris and 
divesting the mob of its suspicions, than by having 
pikes forged ; they ordered the immediate manufacture 
of fifty thousand. Vessels with gunpowder were de- 
scending the Seine, on their way to Versailles ; these 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 27 

were stopped, and the powder distributed amidst the 
most imminent danger. 

A tremendous confusion now prevailed at the Hotel- 
de-Ville, the seat of the authorities, the head quarters 
of the militia, and the centre of all operations. It was 
necessary to provide at once for the safety of the city, 
which was threatened by the court, and its internal 
safety endangered by the brigands. To prevent the 
excesses of the preceding night, the city was illumi- 
hated, and patrols scoured it in every direction. About 
the Hotel-de-Ville were to be seen carriages stopped, 
wagons intercepted, travellers awaiting permission to 
proceed on their journey. During the night, the Hotel 
was menaced by the brigands, but St. Merj'-, to whose 
care it had been committed, caused barrels of powder 
to be brought, and threatened to blow it up. At this 
sight the brigands retired. Meanwhile, the citizens, 
who had retired to their homes, held themselves in 
readiness for every kind of attack ; they had un paved 
the streets, opened the trenches, and taken all possible 
measures for resisting a siege. 

Next day, those who had not been able to obtain 
arms, came to demand them from the committee very 
early in the morning, reproaching it with its refusals 
and evasions on the preceding evening. The commit- 
tee had in vain sought for arms, and they so expressed 
themselves to the citizens, wiio were unanimous in 
their devotion to the Assembly, and were in constant 
fear of an attack upon that body at Versailles, and 
upon the capital. All classes of the citizens had em- 
braced the patriotic side of affairs ; the capitalists, from 
motives of interest, and in the fear of bankruptcy ; men 
of intelligence, and the whole of the middle classes, 
from patriotism ; the people, pressed by want, and as- 
cribing its sufferings to the privileged orders and the 
court; — all had embraced with enthusiasm the cause 
of the Revolution. Failing in obtaining arms from the 
Hotel-de-Ville, they now moved in a body to the Hotel- 
des-Invalides, where there was a depot of arms, and 
by no means an inconsiderable one. Thronging 



28 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

around the Hotel, they called upon the governor for 
arms — some loudly demanded entrance, and M. de 
Sombreuil, the governor, refused either to hand out 
the arms and grant admission to the mob ; he stated 
that he must send to Versailles first for orders. A deaf 
ear was turned by the populace to his expostulations, 
and they forced themselves into the place, where they 
found twenty-eight thousand muskets concealed in 
the cellars ; these, with a great number of sabres and 
spears, they seized upon, and, dragging the cannons 
along, they marched off in triumph with the whole. 
The cannon they placed so as to defend the city from 
the expected attack from the troops; and it was al- 
ready current that the regiments posted at St. Denis 
were on their march towards the capital. To the ex- 
citement arising from this report, an alarm was also 
given that the guns of the Bastille were pointed at the city, 
ranging upon the Rue St. Antoine. " To the Bastille I 
to the Bastille !" was now shouted on every side, with 
furious and frantic gestures. From nine in the morn- 
ing until two in the afternoon the cry of " to the Bas- 
tille !" resounded through Paris, and the citizens, from 
every quarter, thronged in that direction, armed with 
muskets, pikes and sabres. The sentinels of the for- 
tress were posted, the bridges raised, and every thing 
disposed by M. de Launay, the governor, as in a period 
of war.* 

Groups of armed citizens continued to arrive upon the 
spot ; all were excited ; some spoke of the danger they 
had to apprehend from the fortress ; others rehearsed 
the long tale of abuses which it protected; whilst 
others again represented the necessity of occupying a 
point so important, and of no longer leaving it to their 
enemies in a moment of insurrection. Mob after mob 
continued to arrive. " Let us storm the Bastille !" was 
exclaimed ; the cry was reiterated from man to man, 
throughout the immense multitude. The garrison 
summoned the assailants to retire, but they persisted. 

* Thiers; Mignet. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 29 

" We want the Bastille ; we will have the Bastille !" 
were the words that from time to time arose from the 
multitude, and, with these and similar exclamations, 
they continued to demand the surrender of the for- 
tress. Two men,* with great rapidity, suddenly sprang 
from the crowd, mounted the roof of the guard house, 
and broke with axes the chains of the drawbridge, 
which slammed down with a thundering force. The 
crowd rushed upon it, and at this moment a dis- 
charge of musketry from the garrison arrested the 
progress of the throng ere it reached the second bridge, 
its object being to batter that down also. But the 
attack was renewed, and during several hours vigo- 
rous efforts were directed against the second bridge, 
the approach to which was now defended by a con- 
stant fire from the soldiers defending the fortress. 
These were thirty-two Swiss and eighty-two inva- 
lides.f Many of the assailants were killed and wound- 
ed ; this only infuriated them the more. 

In the meantime, the committee sitting at the Hotel- 
de-Ville was in great anxiety. The siege of the Bas- 
tille appeared to it a rash enterprise. It received from 
time to time the tidings of disasters which were hap- 
pening at the foot of the fortress. It was placed be- 
tween the danger from the troops if the garrison 
proved victorious, and that of the incensed populace, 
which was imperiously demanding from it ammuni- 
tion to carry on the siege. As they could not give 
what they possessed not, they were accused of treach- 
ery; they had sent two deputations, to procure the 
suspension of hostilities, and invite De Launay to con- 
fide the keeping of the place to the citizens ; but in 
the midst of the continued shout of the swaying multi- 
tude, discharge of musketry, and unceasing tumult, 
they were unable to make themselves heard. Wilder 

* Louis Tournay and Aubin Bonnemere, two old soldiers. Some 
say that they were mounted, not on the guard house, but " on bayo- 
nets stuck into joints of the wall." 

t Invalides are old soldiers, supported by an institution that owes 
its foundation to Louis XIV. 

3* 



30 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

and wilder swelled the tide of human beings, and more 
and more deafening the uproar. Those that took 
the lead, raged up and down amidst the excited thou- 
sands ! The wounded were carried into the houses 
of the Rue Cerisaie ; and the dying exhorted the 
living not to yield until the accursed stronghold was 
taken ! The firemen, with their fire-pumps, came 
upon the ground, and endeavoured to throw water 
upon the cannon of the garrison, to wet the touch- 
holes ; but they were unable to project a stream so 
high, and produced only clouds of spray. A third de- 
putation fi-om the Hotel-de-Ville arrived, with a flag 
of truce and the beating of drums; the flag and drums 
to distinguish their body from the dense throng of the 
populace. The firing was for a time suspended. The 
deputation advanced ; the garrison awaited them, but 
such was the clamor, they were unable to make them- 
selves understood to each other. * Musket shots were 
fired from some unknown quarter, and the mob, per- 
suaded that it was betrayed, rushed forward to fire 
the building. Grape shot were fired into it from the 
garrison, and the dead and wounded dropped amid 
the enraged mass. Now all was exasperation, and 
the French guards who had espoused the popular 
cause, came up with cannon. The confidence of 
these soldiers had been gained by the citizens, who 
had previously mingled among them, invited them to 
eat and drink, and told them that " they also were 
citizens before they were soldiers." The soldier found 
these arguments convincing, and the regiment of 
French guards, consisting of about 3000, upon which 
the court had placed great dependence, joined the 
people. 

" How the great Bastille clock ticks (inaudible) in 
its inner court there, at its ease, hour after hour ; as 

* " Deputations, three in number, arrive from the Hotel-de-Ville. 
These wave their Town flag in the arched gateway ; and stand, roll- 
ing their drum, but to no purpose. In such a Crack of Doom, De Lau- 
nay cannot hear them, dare not believe them : they return, with jus- 
tilied rage, the whew of lead still singing in their ears." — CarlyU. 



>..-/•' 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 31 

if nothing special, for it or the world, were passing ! 
It tolled one when the firing began ; and now it is point- 
ing towards five, and still the firing slakes not."* 
The arrival of the French guards, the captain of which 
exclaimed, " We are come to join you," changed the 
face of the combat. The cannon were instantly 
brought to bear upon the garrison, and the soldiers in 
the Bastille at once urged upon De Launay the neces- 
sity of surrendering. He, in the desperation of the 
moment, seized a lighted match, and approached the 
powder magazine. He would have blown up the for- 
tress, and buried himself beneath its ruins ; but the 
soldiers seized him, prevented him. They hung out a 
white flag upon the platform, reversed their muskets, 
and lowered their cannon, in token of peace. But the 
besiegers, fighting and advancing on, continued ex- 
claiming, " Let down the bridges !" The garrison de- 
manded leave to capitulate, and march out with the 
honors of war. " No ! No !" was the cry from many 
voices, prompted by blood-thirsty feelings of ven- 
geance. Finally, the garrison proposed to lay down 
their arms, if the besiegers would promise to spare 
their lives. " Let down the bridge ; no harm shall be- 
fall you," was the reply, and, on this assurance, the 
Bastille gate was opened, and the second bridge let 
down. " Victory ! the Bastille is taken !" is the shout- 
exclamation that fills the air, as the living deluge pour 
over the bridge and into the Bastille. Those at the 
head of the multitude, who had promised safety to the 
garrison, wished to save the Governor, the Swiss and 
the Invalides. " Give them up to us ! Give them up 
to us ! They have fired on their fellow-citizens, and 
they deserve to be hanged !" was the cry of the fiend- 
ish portion of the mass, as it plunged through court 
and corridor. The French guards undertook to pro- 
tect De Launay and his garrison ; but the mad mob 
tore several from their protection ; one Swiss received 
a death-thrust ; one Invalide had his hand slashed off 
him, and he was then dragged to the Place de Greve, 

* Carlyle. 



32 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

and there hanged. " Let all the prisoners be marched 
to the Hotel-de-Ville, to be judged there !" was the de- 
mand of the mob. De Launay was for killing himself 
with the sword of his cane, but was prevented. " To 
the Hotel-de-Ville with him!" was the cry; and, through 
roarings and cursings, an attempt was made to escort 
him ; but the escort was hustled aside, and with im- 
placable ferocity the mob surrounded the unfortunate 
De Launay.* 

The committee was still sitting at the Hotel-de-Ville, 
and in the most painful anxiety. The hall of its sit- 
tings was choked up by a furious multitude, uttering 
threats against the provost, M. de Flesselles. It was 
now half past five o'clock. The attention of the mul- 
titude was arrested by cries from the Place de Greve 
of " Victory ! Victory !" An immense throng ap- 
proached ; they poured into the hall ; one of the French 
guards, covered with wounds and crowned with lau- 
rels, was borne in triumph ; others, who had particu- 
larly distinguished themselves, were similarly honored. 
The regulations and the keys of the Bastille were sus- 
pended from the bayonet at the end of a musket. A 
bloody hand raised above the mob exhibited a bunch 
of hair; it was the queue of De Launay,f whose head 
had just been stricken off. T wo of the French guards 
had defended him to the last extremity. Thus trophied 
came the conquerors of the Bastille to the Hotel-de- 
Ville ; their eyes gleaming, their hair in disorder, 
bearing all kinds of arms, crowding one upon another, 
and making the boards resound with the stamping of 
their feet. They came to announce their triumph to 
the committee, and demand a decision upon the fate 

* " One other officer is massacred ; one other Invalide is hanged 
on the lamp-iron ; with difficulty, with generous perseverance, ^he 
Gardes Frangaise will save the rest." — Carlyle. 

t " Miserable De Launay ! He shall never enter the Hotel-de- 
Ville : only his ' bloody hair-queue, held up in a bloody hand ;' that 
shall enter for a sign. The bleeding trunk lies on the steps there ; 
the head is off through the streets, ghastly, aloft on a pike." — 
Carlyle. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 33 

of the prisoners taken in the Bastille. " No quarter !" 
cried some — " no quarter to men who have fired on 
their fellow citizens !" But others were more merciful ; 
influential men among them succeeded in appeasing 
the wrath of the multitude, and in obtaining an am- 
nesty for the Swiss and Invalides. But so strong was 
the current of animosity against M. de Flesselles, that 
the committee, who strove to justify him to the mob, 
found themselves unable to stem it. It was alleged 
that he had deceived the people by repeated promises 
of arms that he never intended to supply. In proof 
of which, it is said, a letter had been found upon the 
person of De Launay — from M. de Flesselles to De 
Launay — " I amuse the Parisians with cockades and 
promises ; hold out until to-night, and you shall have 
relief" Flesselles began to be uneasy in his situation, 
exposed to reproaches and most furious menaces. He 
was pale, anxious. " Since I am suspected," said he, 
" I will retire." Several voices called out, " Come to 
the Palais-Royal to be tried." And from every part of 
the crowd, " To the Palais-Royal ! to the Palais- 
Royal !" was echoed and re-echoed. " Ah, well ! be it 
so, gentlemen," answered Flesselles, with an air of 
assumed tranquillity ; at the same moment he sprang 
from the raised part of the hall into the midst of the 
mob, which opened as he marched forward, and which 
followed without doing him any violence, though it 
densely thronged around him as he proceeded. But, 
at the corner of the Q,uai Pelletier, an unknown per- 
son advanced towards him and laid him dead with a 
pistol-shot.* 

Such were the events of July 14th, 1789. After these 
scenes of arming, tumult, battle and vengeance, the 
Parisians prepared themselves for the attack which 
they that night expected from the troops that sur- 
rounded the city. They formed barricades, and threw 
up entrenchments; they broke up the pavements, 
forged pikes, cast bullets ; the women carried stones 
to the tops of the houses to be in readiness to hurl 

♦ Mignet ; Thiers. 



34 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

them down upon the troops ; the national guard dis- 
tributed themselves at different posts ; and Paris re- 
sembled an immense workshop and a vast camp. " At 
the Bastille, they have broken open the dungeons, and 
now along the streets are borne the rescued captives 
— heads on pikes — the keys of the Bastille, and much 
else. Likewise ashlar stones of the Bastille continue 
thundering through the dusk ; its paper archives shall 
fly white. Old secrets come to view ; and long-buried 
despair finds voice." * The people of Paris, equally 
occupied to give orders and execute them, had deter- 
mined on the destruction of the Bastille they had 
taken. An immense crowd mounted upon its parapet, 
and by mere human force began to throw down the 
large stones of which it was built. It was considered, 
from its peculiar feudal appearance and public situa- 
tion, as a sort of despotism personified ; and there 
were few, if any, who did not feel a pleasure in seeing 
it fall. All that night was passed by the population 
of Paris under arms, and in momentary expectation 
of battle. But the attack upon the city was not made ; 
Besenval, commander of the troops, withdrew during 
the night, marching down the left bank of the Seine, 
and leaving Paris to the conduct of its citizens. 

In the attack on the Bastille, the Parisians showed 
themselves resolute and unyielding, as well as prompt 
and headlong. The garrison of this too famous castle 
was indeed very weak, but its deep moats, and insur- 
mountable bulwarks, presented the most imposing 
show of resistance ; and the triumph which the popu- 
lar cause obtained in an exploit seemingly so despe- 
rate, infused a general consternation in the King and 
royahsts.f Louis XVI. had retired to bed, when the 
news of the insurrection of Paris reached Versailles. 
« What, rebellion V he exclaimed, when the tidings 
were communicated to him. " Sire, rather say revo- 
lution," was the reply. 

The capture of the Bastille, the death of De Launay, 
and that of Flesselles, was known to the National 

• Carlyle. t Scott's Napoleon. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 35 

Assembly about midnight. Several deputations had 
already been sent by the Assembly to the King, 
with a request that he would withdraw the obnoxious 
troops ; and in the morning a new deputation was 
nominated to convince the monarch of the calamities 
which would ensue from a longer refusal. As it was 
starting, " Tell the King," exclaimed Mirabeau, " that 
the hordes of foreigners by which we are surrounded, 
received yesterday the visits of princes, princesses, of 
favorites, of court ladies, and their caresses, their ex- 
hortations, their presents. Tell him, that all last night 
these foreign satellites, gorged with money and wine, 
have, in their impious revels, been predicting the sub- 
jugation of France, and that their brutal wishes in- 
voked the destruction of the National Assembly. Tell 
him, that in his very palace the courtiers mingled with 
their dances the sound of that barbarous music, and 
that such orgies were the prelude to the massacre of 
St. Barthelemy ! Tell him that that Henri,* whose 
memory the whole world blesses — he of his ancestors 
whom he should take for a model — tell him that he, 
when besieging Paris in person, permitted provisions 
to be conveyed into rebellious Paris ; whereas, his 
ferocious councillors are now turning back the flour 
which commerce is sending into his faithful and fam- 
ished capital !" 

But at this instant it was announced that the King, 
attended by his two brothers,! and without escort or 
retinue, was coming, of his own accord, to the Assem- 
bly. The hall rang with applause. " Wait," Mirabeau 
gravely remarked, "till the King has made us ac- 
quainted with his good dispositions. Let a sullen 
respect be the first welcome paid to the monarch in 
this moment of grief The silence of nations is a les- 
son for kings." The King was accordingly received 
amidst profound silence; but when he declared that 
he was one with the nation, and that, relying upon the 
affections and fidelity of his subjects, he had ordered 

♦ Henri Quatre. 

t Count de Provence, (afterwards Louis XVIII.) and the Count 
D'Artois, (afterwards Charles X.) 

4 



36 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the remova] of the troops from Versailles and Paris — 
when he further spoke of the distrust that had been 
entertained of him, and avowed that he was willing 
entirely to confide in the National Assembly — he was 
hailed with rapturous applause ; the deputies rose 
spontaneously from their seats, thronged round the 
monarch, and escorted him, (' interlacing their arms to 
keep off the excessive pressure from him,') back to the 
palace. The Q,ueen, surrounded by ladies and gen- 
tlemen of the court, stood in a balcony, and contem- 
plated from a distance this affecting scene. Her little 
boy and girl were at her side, — or, rather, the boy in 
her arms, the girl standing by, sportively playing with 
her brother's hair. The Queen kissed her children 
several times ; and she appeared dehghted by this ex- 
pression of love for her husband upon the part of the 
Frenchmen who were escorting him. Vivats filled the 
air — far and wide the enthusiasm spread, and who 
would have said otherwise than that the court and the 
people were fully reconciled f For a .moment all 
seemed forgotten ; but on the morrow, nay, perhaps 
the very same day the court had renewed its pride, 
the people their distrust, and hatred renewed its 
course. 

In Paris, a delirious joy had succeeded the terrors 
of the preceding day. The people flocked to see the 
Bastille — that so long dreaded den — to which there 
was now free access. They visited it with a mingled 
feeling of curiosity and terror. They sought for the 
instruments of torture, for the deep dungeons. They 
went thither more particularly to see an enormous 
stone, in the middle of a dark and damp cell, to the 
centre of which was fixed a ponderous chain. A com- 
plete change in the countenances and the minds of the 
populace was now to be seen. The Bastille taken, and 
the troops no longer menacing Paris, the consternation 
of the two preceding days gave place to a joyful 
triumph !* 

* Thiers ; Mignet. . 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 37 



CHAPTER II. 

The King's visit to Paris — La Fayette commander of the National 
Guard — M. Bailli, mayor of Paris — M. Necker — Popular excite- 
ment — Massacre of Foulon and his son-in-law — Massacres and 
Horrors perpetrated in the Provinces — Destruction of Chateaux 
and Property — Cruehies practised — Newspapers — Marat — A de- 
scription of him — Formation of the Jacobin Club — Its affiliated 
Societies — Further Atrocities in the Provinces — Duke of Orleans 
— His Wealth — His Vices — Debaucheries — His Manner of gain- 
ing Popularity — Mirabeau — His Birth — His Passions and Impetu- 
osity — His Expenses — Imprisonment — Intrigues — Description of 
his Person — His Talents — He becomes a Leader in the Assembly 
— Scorned by the Nobihty — Paris yet agitated — The Palais-Royal 
— Barbers, Tailors, Servants — Tumults and Famine — The Popu- 
lace suspicious of the Court — Arrival of the Flanders Regiment 
at Versailles, and Banquet given to them by the King's Life- 
Guards — Splendor — Music — Abundance — Toasts offensive to the 
People, and Bacchanalian Orgies — Louis XVI. and Marie An- 
toinette present at these orgies — Wild Enthusiasm of the Life- 
Guards at the Appearance of the King and Queen — Cockades 
distributed — Indignation of the Parisians in consequence of this 
Banquet — The Prodigality of it considered an Insult to the Pub- 
lic Distress — Rumors of Conspiracy and Counter-Revolution — 
The cry of "Bread!" in the streets of Paris--Crowds at the 
Bakers' Shops — Insurrection of the 5th of October — The cry of 
" To Versailles !" — Commotion — Fish women— Maillard — Im- 
mense Concourse — The March to Versailles — La Fayette's Life 
threatened — The Mob at Versailles — They attack the Palace — 
Pursue the Queen — Massacre of the Life-Guards — Jourdan — La 
Fayette— Tumult— The cry of " The King to Paris !"— The Queen 
shows herself on the Balcony — Grotesque Procession and Return 
of the Mob to Paris, surrounding the Carriages of the Royal 
Family, &c. 

The consequences of the 14th of July were immense. 
The fall of the Bastille may be said to have shaken 
France to its deepest foundations. Rumor flies every- 
where, and it is said that by the management of the 
Duke of Orleans and Mirabeau, couriers were des- 
patched, riding with all speed, towards all parts of 
France, with the tidings of what had occurred ; and 



38 THE REIGN OF TERROR, 

the commotion of Paris was speedily communicated 
to the provinces, where the lower classes, in imitation 
of those of the capital, organized themselves into mu- 
nicipalities for their government, and into national 
guards for their defence. In Paris, La Fayette* was 
elected commander of the National Guard, and M. 
Bailli, mayor of the city. 

Louis XVI. set out from Versailles to Paris on the 
17th, to make his peace with the capital. He dreaded 
it, and Marie Antoinette wished him not to go. " It 
was announced in Paris early on Friday morning, 
that his majesty would be at the town-house at two 
o'clock in the day. On his road he was met by an 
armed guard of Paris, who lined the way for eight 
miles with a double row of the new-made soldiers, 
forming a motley, but to him a horrible spectacle. 
The greatest part were armed with pikes, sticks and 
swords, and a few with muskets, for there were near 
200,000 men, and they had neither uniforms nor leaders. 
Some of the revolted soldiers were interspersed in the 
ranks." ] M. Bailli presented him with the keys of 
Paris, the same that two hundred years previously 
were delivered to Henri IV. " He had conquered his 
people," said Bailli ; "now the people have re-conquer- 
ed their king." Louis descended from his carriage, 
and without any apparent distrust of the populace, 
entered the Hotel-de-Ville, surrounded by the multi- 
tude. From the hands of Bailli he received the tri- 
colored cockade ; he sanctioned the new magistracies, 
expressed his approbation of the choice of the people 
therein, and in consequence was greeted with loud cries 
of " Vive le Roi !" Amidst these acclamations he set 
out upon his return to Versailles, and when he arrived 
at the palace, the Glueen, throwing herself into his 

*"A commandant of the militia yet remained to be appointed. 
There was in the hall a bust sent by enfranchised America to the 
city of Paris ; all eyes were directed towards it. It was the bust of 
the Marquis de La Fayette. A general cry proclaimed him com- 
mandant." — Thiers. 

t Playfair's Hist, of Jacobinism. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 39 

arms, embraced him as though she had expected 
never to see him again — such was the terror she 
and the court entertained of the Parisian populace ! 
Indeed, they had constantly imagined, since the 14th, 
that an army from the capital would march upon Ver- 
sailles; and, in dread of their lives, upon this very 
day, the Count D'Artois, the Polignac family, and 
others, particularly odious to the citizens of Paris, had 
set off in haste, and were the first to quit France. 
" The day of the king's entry into Paris," says Ali- 
son, *' was the first of the emigration of the noblesse. 
The leaders of the royalist party, always the first to 
propose violent measures, were at the same time un- 
able to support them when fiiriously opposed; they 
diminished the sympathy of the world at their fall 
from so high a rank, by showing that they were un- 
worthy of it." 

M. Necker was again called to take charge of affairs. 
He returned in triumph. Every where on his route, 
he was met with marks of gratitude, and witnessed 
the intoxicating joy of the people. * Bailli and La 
Fayette, owing to the fermented state of the capital, 
had many difficulties to encounter ; they were inde- 
fatigably vigilant in their respective duties, the one as 
Mayor of Paris, the other as commander of the Na- 
tional Guards, but were not always successful in 
their endeavours to check the popular fury. Every 
moment, the most absurd reports were circulated, and 

* " James Necker, an eminent financier and statesman, bom at 
Geneva in 1732, and for many years carried on the business of a 
banker at Paris. His Essays on the Resources of France, inspired 
such an idea of his financial abilities, that, in 1776, he was appointed 
director of the treasury, and, shortly after, comptroller-general. In 
1788, he advised the convocation of the States-General, but was 
abruptly dismissed and ordered to quit the kingdom in July, 1789 ; 
yet was almost instantly recalled in consequence of the ferment 
which his dismissal excited in the public mind. Necker, however, 
soon became as much an object of antipathy to the people as he had 
been of their idolatry, and in 1790 he left France forever. He died at 
Copet, in Switzerland, in 1804. His daughter was the celebrated 
Madame de Stael. — Biographical Dictionary. 

4* 



40 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

credited by the unthinking. "National vengeance" 
and "national justice" were words constantly upon 
the lips of the populace ; words used by the ignorant 
upon all occasions, with about as much comprehen- 
sion of their meaning, as the parrot in his cage has 
of what he repeats. For example, M. Foulon, for- 
merly an intendant, (or tax-collector,) who was very 
rich, but by no means popular, had accepted, when 
Necker was dismissed, a place in the new ministerial 
arrangements ; he was also father-in-law to M. Berthier 
de Sauvigny, the present intendant ; he was a harsh 
and rapacious man, and was obnoxious to many in 
consequence of the extortions he had committed when 
in power. His enemies had spread a report that he 
had been heard to say the people ought to be made eat 
grass. He and his son-in-law fled jfrom Paris, and, 
fierce indeed was popular indignation against them. 
Foulon, aware that his life was sought, and knowing 
that no means would be left untried to capture him, 
felt himself insecure in his hiding-place at Vitry, and 
circulated a report that he was dead; the which he 
was enabled to do, inasmuch as one of his domestics 
died at this time, and he took the opportunity of having 
a funeral as sumptuous as would have taken place in 
case of his own demise. But all did not avail ; he 
was betrayed ; caught upon his own estate ; and, in 
retort for his wish that the people should be made to 
eat grass, his mouth was filled with it, a collar of net- 
tles was put round his neck, and a bunch of hay upon 
his back. In this state, the old man (he was seventy- 
four) was forced to walk twenty miles through the 
heat and dust of a day in July, led with ropes, goaded 
on with curses and menaces, the pitiablest, most un- 
pitied of all old men — and brought to the Hotel-de- 
Ville to be tried. La Fayette exerted himself to save 
the life of the old man, and several times addressed 
the mob with success. But a person stepped forward, 
exclaiming, " Friends, why should we judge this man 1 
Has he not been judged these thirty years 1" With 
wild yells, the crowd then rushed upon Foulon, clutch- 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 41 

ed him with its hundred hands, and whirled him 
across the Place de Greve, in spite of his cries and ap- 
peals to be spared, to the lanterne (lamp-iron) at the 
corner of the Rue de la Vannerie.* Twice the rope 
broke with him, but the third effort left him dangling, 
with the tuft of grass in his mouth, and the boisterous 
crowd exulting around him. This done, they severed 
the head from the body, and with it sticking on a pike, 
(the mouth stiil stuffed with grass) paraded it in tri- 
umph. The body, naked, was dragged through the 
streets, with a number of furies, in the form of women, 
dancing round it as it went along, and with words 
and gestures, which do not admit of a repetition, en- 
deavouring to degrade a lifeless corpse, f 

Berthier de Sauvigny, it was now known, had been 
arrested and was on his road to Paris. The excite- 
ment increased. At night-fall, Berthier arrived in a 
cabriolet, under a guard of five hundred horsemen 
with drawn sabres. The crowd thronged around 
him, brandishing placards before his eyes, with sen- 
tences, in huge letters, such as " He robbed the King 
and France," "He devoured the substance of the 
People," " He was the slave of the rich and the 
tyrant of the poor," " He drank the blood of the widow 
and orphan," "He betrayed his country," etc. All 
Paris issues forth to meet him, with dances, windows 
flung up, triumph-songs, and as he arrives at the 
Hotel-de-Ville, his gaze is met by the bleeding head of 
his father-in-law on a pike. He was conducted to the 
Hotel-de-Viile, where he would answer nothing, utter- 
ing merely a few words of courage and indignation. 
The mob clamored for his blood, and, in spite of the 

* In the beginning of the Revolution, when the mob executed 
their pleasure on the individuals against whom their suspicions were 
directed, the lamp-irons served for gibbets, and the ropes by which 
the lamps or lanterns were suspended across the street, were ready 
halters. Hence the cry of " Les Aristocrates a la lanterne." The 
answer of the Abbe Maury is well known. " Eh ! mes amies, et 
quand vous m'auriez mis a la lanterne, est ce que vous verriez plus 
cl^ix V'—Boiog. Univ. 

t Thiers. 



42 THE REIGxH OF TERROR. 

efforts of the guards to save him, he was seized. He 
snatched a weapon from one of the throng, and des- 
perately defended himself Overpowered by num- 
bers, he was beaten down and trampled ; then dragged 
to the same lamp-iron from which Foulon had been 
hanged a few hours previously. The rope broke, and 
he fell to the ground ahve. A sabre was thrust into 
his bowels, his body was cut open, his entrails dragged 
out, and his heart and head carried each on a pike 
throughout the streets.* 

La Fayette strove to prevent this sanguinary deed, 
as well as to quiet the disturbances of the populace, 
but, notwithstanding his indefatigable vigilance, he 
was unsuccessful in many instances ; for, let a force 
be ever so active, it cannot show itself every where 
against a multitude that is every where in agitation. It 
was upon this occasion the mob discovered, that 
as the National guards were, in cases of insurrection, 
to be their antagonists, the best way would be to 
make the women go foremost. This they long prac- 
tised, and generally with perfect success ; for besides 
that, the market-women and fish-women of Paris 
were mostly full as stout as the men, they were 
bolder, more daring, and more cruel. 

The peasantry of many of the provinces imitated, in 
the meantime, the lower orders of Paris, in a crusade 
against gentility; castles were burned, their lords 
hunted forth, the possessors of property menaced and 
proscribed. On the banks of the Soane, where the 
country is in general fertile, a country attorney forged 
an order from the King to destroy gentlemen's chat- 
eaux. He assembled a mob of 5000, and in the course 
of six or seven days, above seventy mansions were 
burnt down, and the churches and small towns were 
plundered. This armed banditti was at last attacked 
and defeated, by a sort of army raised by the gentle- 
men of the country, with considerable slaughter. Some 
of the ringleaders were legally tried and punished. 

* Thiers ; Mignet ; Carlyle ; etc. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 43 

The mischiefs in other parts did not stop. The 
Chevalier d'Ambli was taken from his house, dragged 
naked through a village, and had his hair and eye- 
brows burnt off; he was thrown upon a dunghill 
whilst his tormenters, like Indian savages, were danc- 
ing around. In Languedoc, M. de Barras was cut to 
pieces in the presence of his wife who was far ad- 
vanced in pregnancy, and died with the fright. At 
Mans, M. de Montesson was shot, after witnessing the 
murder of his father-in-law. The title-deeds of a 
gentleman were demanded of his steward, who, refu- 
sing to give them up, was carried to a fire, and his 
feet were burnt off. 

In this state of public affairs, a number of small daily 
newspapers appeared, some of them giving only the 
debates of the Assembly, and a little news; others 
giving news, reasonings of their own, and embracing 
whatever a newspaper may be supposed to contain. 
The most conspicuous among these was entitled — " The 
Friend of the People," edited by the notorious Jean 
Paul Marat,* whose writings were of the most revolu- 
tionary and destructive nature. "Marat's political 
exhortations began and ended like the howl of a blood- 
hound for murder. If a wolf could have written a 
journal, the gaunt and famished wretch could not 
have ravened more eagerly for slaughter. It was blood 
which was Marat's constant demand ; not in drops 
from the breast of an individual, not in puny streams 
from the slaughter of families; but blood in the profu- 
sion of an ocean. We are inclined to believe that 
there was a touch of insanity in his unnatural ferocity ; 
and the wild and squalid features of the wretch 
appear to have intimated a degree of alienation of 
mind."t His face was hideous, and his head mon- 
strous for his size. From nature he derived a daring 

* "An atrocious journal," says M. Thiers, " in which he openly 
advocated murder, and heaped the most audacious insults on the 
royal family, and on all who were the objects of suspicion to his 
frenzied imagination." 

t Sir Walter Scott 



44 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

mind, an ungovernable imagination, a vindictive tem- 
per, and a ferocious heart. His natural enthusiasm 
rose to delirium, and he preached up revolt, murder 
and pillage. He wrote and spoke with facility, in a 
diffuse, incoherent, but bold and impassioned man- 
ner ; and was one of the most prominent orators of the 
Jacobin Club, a society established in Paris, and com- 
posed of the ultra-revolutionists, both in and out of 
the Assembly. This club in Paris corresponded 
directly with upwards of eleven hundred similar 
societies formed throughout the kingdom ; these eleven 
hundred had each its circle of clubs in the inferior 
towns and villages, and in this way the total number 
amounted to about fifteen thousand. An active and 
vigorous correspondence was continually carried on, 
and as they consisted of members actuated with one 
spirit, there was no difficulty of regulating almost all 
public affairs ; and when they could not regulate, they 
could counteract any measure, and when they could 
not counteract they could denounce. The Jacobin 
club in Paris could write directly to the eleven hund- 
red, through which, whatever movement was con- 
templated in the capital, would be immediately com- 
municated to the remotest provinces, and the popular 
voice made ready to support any and every measure. 
Such then was the organization of the Jacobin club, 
which took its origin from Mirabeau, and its name 
from the convent of Jacobin monks, where the meet- 
ings were held. These meetings were almost perpet- 
ual. Under the cover of giving advice or opinion, or 
of consulting with each other , they examined every 
question debated in the Assembly at Versailles ; and, 
whenever it suited their purpose, their opinions were 
printed and placarded. With this continued excitement 
of debating, writing, publishing, and putting in force 
the new ideas of legislation, the minds of all the people 
were extremely heated, and the consequence was, that 
plots of every kind were imagined, and there was no 
rest by night or day. Novelty, which has a great 
influence with the Parisian, and hope, which luckily 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 45 

comes to alleviate the pains of men on most occasions, 
rendered the citizen content ; but, above all, his self- 
love was gratified by thinking himself free. Thus it 
is, that what is difficult and dangerous becomes often 
more sufferable than it would otherwise be, and at last 
the necessity of continuing, added to the habit of 
enduring, supports us for a long series of years 
under circumstances which would, without these alle- 
viations, have become intolerable.* Not that we mean 
to confound republicanism and Jacobinism, but that 
the French confounded them; not that liberty and 
anarchy can be mixed together, for where the one is, 
the other certainly will never be found, but that the 
majority of the nation mistook the one for the other, 
and were thereby led into those violent extremes 
which characterized this epoch of their history. 

The atrocities of the capita] continued to be imitated 
throughout the province. The regiments of the line 
everywhere declared for the popular side, the whole 
population possessed themselves with arms, and no 
power remained to resist the insurrections of the 
lower orders. At Caen, and several other towns, the 
massacres of the metropolis were too faithfully imita- 
ted. M. de Belzunce, who endeavoured to restrain 
the excesses of his regiment, was put to death with the 
most aggravated circumstances of cruelty ; his re- 
mains were Mterally devoured by his murderers, f 
Everywhere the peasants rose in arms, attacked and 
burned the chateaux of the landlords, and massacred 
or expelled the possessors. In their blind fury, they 
did not even spare those seigneurs who were known 
to be inclined to the popular side, or had done the 
most to mitigate their sufferings or support their 
rights. Not unfrequently the most cruel tortures were 
inflicted ; many had the soles of their feet roasted over 
a slow fire before being put to death ; others had their 
hair and eyebrows burned off, while their dwellings 
were being destroyed, after which they were drowned 
in the nearest fish-pond. The roads were covered 

* Playfair's Hist, of Jacobinism. t Lacretelle. 

5 



46 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

with young women of rank and beauty flying from 
death, and leading their aged parents by the hand. 

Of the ambitious and designing men who were in- 
clined to mislead the people, and who had the means 
of doing it, the Duke of Orleans must be considered as 
the chief. Possessed of revenues equal to royal, he 
was distinguished for most of those low vices (carried 
to a great excess,) which are in general only to be 
found in the lower class of vagabonds. Every rank 
in society has the vices natural to itself, but this man, 
as if to show mankind what an assemblage of wicked- 
ness might be produced in the same person, had the 
vices of all different ranks of society. " Make the 
water muddy," said he, " and I will fish in it." He 
trusted to his money, his intrigues, his agents, and his 
new-fangled popularity, for profiting of whatever 
chances a state of political disorder might throw in 
his way. A method which he successfully put in prac- 
tice to obtain the favor of the people, was to buy up 
corn, and then relieve those who were languishing 
under the artificial scarcity. In 1788-9, public tables 
were spread and fires lighted, by his orders, for the 
paupers of the metropolis, and sums of money were 
also distributed among them. " The newspapers of 
the day employed his name in the hints which they 
daily set forth, that France should follow the example 
of England. The Duke of Orleans was fixed upon, 
because, in the English revolution, the direct hne of 
the royal family had been expelled in favor of the 
Prince of Orange. The thing was so often repeated, 
that the Duke began at last to believe he might place 
himself at the head of a party, and become the leader 
of a faction." * He, and the numbers of heartlessly 
ambitious men like him, who emerged into notoriety 
during the crisis of the times, frustrated the progress, 
and stained with blood, the career of hberty gloriously 
commenced. And, however pardonable we may con- 
sider the first excesses of the nation, since they re- 

* Mem, Duchess D'Abrantes. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 47 

suited from the obstinacy of the abuses it was neces- 
sary to destroy, we cannot withhold our condemnation 
from the spirit, that did not, or would not discriminate 
between the patriotism and ambition of its leaders, and 
permitted itself to be hurried from guilt to guilt with 
astonishing recklessness. 

Prominent as an orator both in the Assembly and 
at the meetings of the Jacobin Club, was Mirabeau ; 
and no man in France was at this period equally pop- 
ular. He was looked up to as the champion of the 
people. Honore Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau, 
was born in 1749. Youthful impetuosity and ungov- 
erned passions made the early part of his life a scene 
of disorder and misery. After having been sometime 
in the army, he married Mademoiselle de Marignane, 
a rich heiress in the city of Aix ; but the union was 
not fortunate, and his extravagant expenses deranging 
his affairs, he contracted debts to the amount of 
three hundred thousand livres, in consequence of 
which his father obtained from the Chatelet an act of 
lunacy against him. Enraged at this, he went to set- 
tle at Manosque ; whence he was, on account of a 
private quarrel, some time afterwards removed, and 
shut up in the castle of If; he was then conveyed to 
that of Joux, in Franche Comte, and obtained per- 
mission to go occasionally to Pontalier, where he met 
Sophia de Ruflfey, Marchioness of Monmir, wife of a 
president in the parliament of Besan9on. Her wit 
and beauty inspired him with a most violent passion, 
and he soon escaped to Holland with her, but was for 
this outrage condemned to lose his head, and would 
probably have ended his days far from his country, 
had not an agent of police seized him in 1777, and 
carried him to the castle of Vincennes, where he re- 
mained till December, 1780, when he recovered his 
liberty. The French Revolution soon presented a 
vast field for his activity ; and, being rejected at the 
time of the elections by the nobility of Provence, he 
hired a warehouse, put up this inscription, " Mirabeau, 
Woollen-Draper," and was elected deputy from the 



48 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

tiers-etat of Aix. From that time the court of Versailles, 
to whom he was beginning to be formidable, called 
him the Plebeian Count.* 

Divisions among the popular party in the Assembly- 
began to arise. The most courageous of them all was 
Mirabeau. Proud of his high qualities, jesting over 
his vices, by turns haughty or supple, he won some by 
his flattery, awed others by his sarcasms, and led all 
in his train by the extraordinary influence he pos- 
sessed. His party was everywhere ; among the peo- 
ple, in the Assembly, in the very court, and with all 
those, in short, to whom he was at the moment ad- 
dressing himself. Thus, unaided except by his genius, 
he attacked despotism, which he had sworn to destroy. 
Harassed moreover by straitened circumstances, dis- 
satisfied with the present, he was advancing towards 
an unknown future ; by his talents, his ambition, his 
vices, his pecuniary embarrassments, he gave rise to 
all sorts of conjectures, and by his cynical language 
he authorized all suspicions and all calumnies.f Ac- 
customed to struggle against despotism, irritated by 
the scorn of the nobility, which did not value him, and 
which rejected him from its bosom ; sagacious, bold, 
eloquent, Mirabeau felt that the revolution would be 
his work and his life. He was adapted for the wants 
of his age. His thoughts, his voice, his action, were 
those of an orator ; in perilous circumstances he had 
the power of swaying the determinations of an as- 

* Mirabeau was of the middle stature ; his face was disfi^red by 
the marks of small -pox; and the enormous quantity of hair on his 
head gave him some resemblance to a lion. He was of a lofty 
character, and had talents which were extraordinary, and some 
which were sublime ; his felicity of diction was unrivalled, his 
knowledge of the human heart profound ; naturally violent, the 
least resistance inflamed him ; when he appeared most irritated, his 
expression had most eloquence ; and being a consummate actor, his 
voice and gestures lent additional interest to all he said. His chief 
passion was pride. In the last year of his life, he paid immense 
debts, bought estates, forniture, the valuable library of Buffon, and 
lived in a splendid style." — Biographic Moderne. 

t Thiers. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 49 

sembly ; in difficult discussions the tact of bringing 
them to a close ; in a word, he had the power to keep 
down ambition, to silence hostility, to disconcert 
rivalry.* 

Paris was not yet recovered from the agitation of 
the 14th of July ; it was at the commencement of the 
popular government ; 'all those who did not participate 
in authority, came together in assemblies, and delib- 
erated on public affairs. The soldiers debated at the 
Oratoire, the journeymen tailors at the Colonnade, the 
barbers at the Champs-Elysees, the domestics at the 
Louvre. But it was at the Palais-Royal in particular 
that the most animated discussions took place ; there 
were examined the matters which occupied the debates 
of the Assembly, and controlled its discussions. The 
famine also occasioned tumults, and these were not 
the least dangerous. Night and day the Committee of 
Public Subsistence were engaged in providing for the 
wants of the citizens ; the farmers no longer brought 
their grain to market, fearing it would be seized by 
the multitude. Large quantities were bought at the 
public expense, and conducted into Paris, in great 
convoys, guarded by regiments of horse. It was ground 
at the public cost, and sold at a reduced rate to the 
citizens ; but such was the anxiety of the people, that 
all these pains would not suffice, and loud complaints 
of starvation incessantly assailed the Assembly. The 
people of Versailles already insulted and pelted the 
nobles and clergy at the gate of the Assembly, whom 
they stigmatized as Aristocrats, an epithet which 
afterwards became the certain prelude to destruction. 
The finances of the kingdom were daily falling into a 
worse condition. Not only were the forced purchases 
of grain by government, and their sale at a reduced 
price, unavoidably increasing, but a large body of 
workmen, thrown out of employment, were main- 
tained at the public expense, for whose support no less 
than twelve thousand francs were daily issued from 

♦ Mignet 
5* 



50 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the treasury in Paris alone. Mobs were constantly 
congregated around the baker-shops, and the cry was 
that the measures of the court were the cause of the 
pubhc distress, and that the only way to provide for 
the subsistence of the people was to secure the person 
of the King. An attack upon the palace at Versailles 
was openly discussed in the clubs, and recommended 
by the orators of the Palais-Royal. The streets were 
filled with a threatening populace, half-banditti, half- 
madmen. 

Many causes of discontent existed, and there only 
wanted occasion for an insurrection. This the court 
furnished. Under the pretextof guarding itself from the 
movements of Paris, it summoned the troops to Ver- 
sailles, doubled the King's life-guards, and brought up 
the dragoons and regiment of Flanders. This display 
of military force gave rise to apprehensions ; a report 
of some counter-revolutionary blow was spread, and 
the flight of the King, and the dissolution of the As- 
sembly, were announced. The confidence of the court 
increased the distrust of Paris, and costly entertain- 
ments soon exasperated the sufferings of the populace, 
who were in want of bread. " Hunger whets every 
thing ; especially Suspicion and Indignation." 

The arrival of the regiment from Flanders was wel- 
comed by a dinner to its officers, given by the life- 
guards, on Thursday the 1st October, in the hall of 
the opera. The King's band of musicians was ordered 
to assist at the festival. The boxes were filled with 
spectators belonging to the court. Much gayety pre- 
vailed during the repast, and wine soon raised it to 
exaltation ; drums sounded, trumpets pealed, and 
merry voices mingled joyously with the music. The 
ringing of glasses were mingled with martial songs, 
and merriment increased each hour. The tables were 
tastefully adorned and richly laden ; boquets, in costly 
vases were scattered about ; the guests were seated 
along the tables ; the life-guards, in their rich uniform 
and glittering side-arms, conversed confidentially with 
the ofiicers of Flanders, in their coarse habiliments. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 51 

Spectators, guests, all seemed to abandon themselves 
to the merriment of the occasion. Here and there 
groups of officers arose from the table, and, overcome 
by wine, staggered up and do\vn the saloon. Some 
noisily rung their glasses together, while others sealed 
their bond of friendship by shaking hands across the 
table; and the majority drank a tumultuous "confu- 
sion " to the enemies of the royal family, confusion to 
the National Assembly, and to the Parisians. At that 
moment, a few of the heated life-guards, opened wide 
the doors of the saloon, and in various masses, the 
soldiers of the Flemish regiment entered, to partake 
of the feast. A hundred hands met them with full gob- 
lets, and the officers tendered their inferiors the bowl ; 
and the proud guard of the royal house condescended 
to friendly force in bringing the subalterns to the table, 
offering them the delicacies of the dessert. Trans- 
ports increased every moment. Suddenly the King 
was announced. He entered the banquetting room, 
followed by the Q,ueen, with the Dauphin in her arms. 
Acclamations of attachment and devotion rang through 
the saloon. The company, with drawn swords, drank 
the health of the royal family — the toast of the nation 
was refused, or, at least, oi^itted. The trumpets 
sounded a charge; the boxes were scaled with loud 
shouts by the wine-heated life-guards. All seemed to 
be filled with exulting loyalty. " Down with the Assem- 
bly!" was shouted, and other equally imprudent excla- 
mations were uttered. " O Richard ! O mon roi ! 
I'universe t'abandonne I" * an expressive and celebra- 
ted song, was sung. They vowed to die for the King, 
as if he had been in the most imminent danger : and, 
in short, the delirium knew no bounds. The jovial 
clamor, and the profusion of champagne, banished all 
reserve, and the scene assumed a character sufficiently 
significant. The excitement increased, and the music 
could no longer satisfy the demands of the zealous 
soldiers ; for still louder they wished the drums to beat, 

* " O Richard ! O my King ! the world is all forsaking thee, etc." 



52 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

and more noisy they wished the blasts of the trumpets. 
Cockades, white or black, but only of a single color, 
were distributed. The young women, as well as the 
young men, were animated by chivalrous recollections. 
The national cockade was indignantly dashed upon 
the floor and trodden under foot, while that of the Queen 
was assumed with enthusiasm. The banquet broke up 
in this excitement, and the soldiers spread themselves 
among the galleries of the palace, where the ladies 
of the court overwhelmed them with congratulations, 
and decorated them with ribbons and cockades.* 

Such was the famous banquet of the 1st of October, 
1789. The report of this entertainment soon spread, 
and popular imagination, in relating the circumstances, 
added its own exaggerations to those which the ban- 
quet had itself produced. The promises made to the 
King, the acclamations to the royal family, were con- 
strued as threats to the nation; the prodigality dis- 
played was considered an insult to the public distress. 
In Paris, the appearance of the black cockade pro- 
duced the greatest fermentation. Young men who 
wore them were pursued, maltreated, and obliged to 
tear them off. Secret rumours, counter-revolutionary 
invitations, the apprehension of conspiracies, indigna- 
tion against the court, the increasing fear of famine, 
everything announced a rising of the people ; already 
the multitude looked towards Versailles. On the 4th of 
October, the agitation was greater than ever. People 
talked of the departure of the King, and the necessity 
of going to fetch him from Versailles ; they kept an 
eager lookout for black cockades, and vociferously de- 
manded bread ! In the morning of the following day, 
crowds began again to assemble. The women went 
to the bakers' shops, but found no bread to satisfy 
their hunger. At once violent and resistless, the in- 
surrection now broke out. A young woman entered 
a guard house, seized a drum, and ran along the 
streets beating it, and crying " Bread ! bread .'" She 

* Thiers; Mignet; Lacretelle; Toulangeon; Alison; etc 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 53 

was soon surrounded by a crowd of women. This 
mob advanced towards the Hotel-de-Ville, thickening 
as it went, until several thousand women were col- 
lected together; courtezans of the Palais-Royal, in 
white dresses, powdered and curled ; working-women 
of different trades, in their holiday dresses ; fish wo- 
men, with red faces ; and the greater number armed 
with broad carving-knives. Several of the women 
carried spits, broom sticks, and even torches in day- 
light. There were observed among them many men 
disguised as females, and they compelled all the wo- 
men they met to go along with them. Having reached 
the Hotel-de-Ville, they boldly broke through the sev- 
eral squadrons of the National guard, who were drawn 
up in front of the building for its defence. A door was 
forced open ; they rushed in, a miscellaneous rabble 
crowding along with them; efforts were made to 
keep them back, but they succeeded in getting pos- 
session of the door leading to the great bell, and 
sounded the tocsin. The fauxbourgs were instant- 
ly in motion, and dense was the throng of thou- 
sands upon thousands that collected in front of the 
Hotel. " Bread ! bread ! to Versailles ! to Versailles !" 
was the unanimous cry. A citizen named Maillard, 
one of those who had signalized themselves at the 
taking of the Bastille, seized a drum, and beating it, 
descended the steps of the Hotel. He was popular, 
and the crowd followed him. It was his intention to 
collect them together, under pretext of going to Ver- 
sailles, but not to lead them thither. He drew after 
him a motley multitude of women and men, armed 
with bludgeons, broomsticks, muskets and cutlasses. 
Cannon were yoked to cart-horses, and women, with 
pikes and helmets, bestrode them. The tocsin was 
sounding, and the crowd continued to augment. Wo- 
men, with drums at their sides, beat the reveille through 
every street. From almost every house, girls and 
women issued, to increase the crowd ; and troops of 
labourers and vagabonds, from the dregs of the peo- 
ple, armed with knives, pistols and lances, joined them. 



54 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 



Along the streets were baker-shops burst open, or 
besieged by mobs, and uproar and riot marked the 
scene.* 

With this turbulent multitude, Maillard, in the midst 
of a drizzling rain and through the mud, proceeded 
towards Versailles, Unruly as was his singular army, 
he was in some measure obeyed ; so that until they 
arrived at Versailles, less damage was done than from 
such a mob might have been expected, f They enter- 
ed Versailles in the afternoon, singing patriotic airs, 
intermingled with blasphemous obscenities, and the 
most furious threats against the queen. Their first 
visit was to the National Assembly, where the beating 
of drums, shouts, shrieks, and a hundred confused 
sounds, interrupted the deliberations. Maillard,^ brand- 
ishing a sword in his hand, and supported by a wo- 
man holding a long pole, to which was attached a 
tambour de basque, commenced a harangue, announ- 
cing that they wanted bread, that they were con- 
vinced the ministers were traitors, that the arm of the 
people was uplifted and about to strike ; — with much 
to the same purpose, in the exaggerated eloquence of 
the period. Some of the women, then crowded into 
the hall, mixed themselves with the members, sitting 
on the seats beside them. In the gallery a crowd of 
fish women were assembled under the guidance of one 
virago with stentorian lungs, who called to the dep- 
uties familiarly by name, and insisted that their fa- 
vorite Mirabeau should speak. They swaggered 
around the hall, occupied the seats of the president and 
secretaries ; produced or procured victuals and wine, 
ate, drank, sung, swore, scolded, screamed, abused 

* Mignet; Thiers; Lacretelle; Dumont; etc. 

t Playfair. 

t " Maillard began early to signalize himself in all the tumults of 
the metropolis. In September, 1792, he presided at the massacre of 
the prisoners — he afterwards became one of the denunciators of the 
prisons, and, during the Reign of Terror, appeared several times at 
the prison of La Force to mark the victims who were to be condemned 
by the Revolutionary Tribunal" — Biographie Moderne. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 55 

some of the members, and loaded others with curses ; 
they demanded bread and reparation for the affront 
offered to the nation by the hfe-guards. The raihng- 
gates in front of the court-yard of the palace were 
closed, and the regiment of Flanders, the body-guards, 
and other soldiers, drawn up within, facing the multi- 
tude ; while without was an immense crowd of Na- 
tional Guards, armed men, and furious women, uttering 
seditious cries, and clamoring for bread. The fero- 
cious looks of the insurgents, their haggard counte- 
nances, and uplifted arms, bespoke but too plainly 
their savage intentions. * 

In the meantime, the whole armed force of Paris had 
repeatedly demanded La Fayette to lead them on 
after the concourse that had departed for Versailles. La ' 
Fayette hesitated, implored, explained, harangued, but 
all in vain, and, at about five o'clock in the afternoon, 
this second emigration from Paris took place, arriving 
at Versailles at midnight, f Of the National Guards 
there were 30,000, besides the mass who accompanied 
them. The guards, instead of waiting in arms till 
morning, were distributed in the houses of the citizens 
of Versailles. The armed rabble, of both sexes, had 
bivouacked after their own manner upon the parade, 
where the soldiers usually mustered. There they had 
large fires kindled, were eating, drinking, singing, ca- 
rousing, and occasionally discharging fire-arms.| Scuf- 
fles arose from time to time, and one or two of the bodyr 
guards were killed. The horse of one of these guards 

* Alison, Scott, Dumont, &c 

t " The life of La Fayette, in consequence of his opposition to this 
movement, was several times threatened. "To the lantern with 
him !" was frequently heard from the crowd. Finally, finding that 
masses were continually leaving Paris, and that the insurrection 
was transferring itself to Versailles, he concluded it his duty to 
follow thither." — Thiers. 

t " In the hall of the Assembly, drunken women lay extended on 
its benches, and one shameless amazon occupied the president's 
chair, and in derision was ringing his bell. At three in the morn- 
ing the sitting was broken up, and the hall left in possession of its 
unruly invaders." — Alison. 



56 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

fell into the hands of the women, was killed, torn in 
pieces, and eaten half raw and half roasted. The court 
was in consternation, and two carriages were kept 
ready at the gate of the Orangerie, to convey the 
royal family from the scene of danger ; but the King, 
who was apprehensive that, if he fled, the Duke of 
Orleans would be immediately declared lieutenant- 
general of the kingdom, refused to move. He urged 
the Q,ueen to depart, and take the children with her, 
but she declared that nothing should induce her, in 
such an extremity, to separate from her husband. 
La Fayette had so far succeeded in restoring order by 
this time, that he assured the royal family of the secu- 
rity of the palace, and had so much confidence in the 
preservation of public tranquillity, that he resolved to 
retire to rest. The King and Q,ueen, overcome with 
fatigue, upon this assurance, retired to their apart- 
ments. La Fayette repaired for the remainder of the 
night to a chateau at a short distance from the palace. 
It rained heavily, and the multitude sought what- 
ever shelter they could get, but thousands were neces- 
sitated to stand shelterless, shivering with wet and 
cold. Large groups of savage men and intoxicated 
women continued sitting by the watch-fires in all the 
streets of Versailles, relieving the tedium of a rainy 
night by singing revolutionary songs.* Whatever 
might be the intention of the greater number, the 
whole formed too promiscuous an assemblage to be all 
guided by any one sentiment. Plunder was undoubt- 
edly the object of many amongst them, and plunder 
could only be obtained by exciting disorder ; and so 
long as the iron rails and iron gates facing the palace 
were kept shut, there was no more chance of plunder 
than if they had been on a barren heath. Several at- 
tempts were made to force the gates, and in the dark 
the confusion was great, but without serious conse- 
quences, t But as daylight appeared, some individu- 
als of the mob, more excited than the rest, found 

• Alison. t Playfair. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 57 

means to penetrate into the palace, through a gate 
which had been left unguarded for a moment. Simul- 
taneously with this, a furious mob surrounded the 
barracks of the body-guard, broke them open, and 
pursued the flying inmates to the gates of the palace, 
where fifteen were seized and doomed to immediate 
execution. In the meantime, the other mob had rush- 
ed into the palace, and filled the staircases and ves- 
tibules of the royal apartments. Two of the life- 
guards posted at the head of the stairs, made a heroic 
resistance ; one of them called out " Save the queen !" 
This cry was heard by her ; she ran, trembling, and 
half naked, to tfie king's apartments. The assassins 
rushed into her room a few minutes after she had left 
it, and, enraged at finding their victim escaped, 
pierced her bed with their pikes. The two guards at 
the head of the stairs were trodden down, and mas- 
sacred with a hundred pike thrusts. The guards re- 
treated before the mob, bolting and barricading the 
doors, which were successively beaten in. The bodies 
of the two life-guards were dragged below the King's 
windows, there beheaded, and the bloody heads car- 
ried on pikes through the streets of Versailles. * Re- 
treating and defending, the guards were pursued from 
room to room, and finally assembled in the ante-room 
called the CEil de Boeuf, or bull's eye ; but several, un- 
able to gain this place of refuge, were dragged down 
into the court-yard, where a wretch, distinguished by 
a long beard, a broad bloody axe, and a species of 
armour which he wore on his person, had taken on 
himself, by taste and choice, the office of executioner. 
The strangeness of the man's costume, the sanguinary 
rehsh with which he discharged his office, and the 
hoarse roar, with which, from time to time, he de- 
manded new victims, made him resemble some demon 
whom hell had vomited forth, to augment the wicked- 
ness and horror of the scene, f La Fayette, apprized 

* Lacretelle, Mignet, Thiers, &c. 

t Jourdan was the real name of this man. He gained his bread 

6 



58 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

of the invasion of the palace, sprung upon the first 
horse he met with, and directed his course as rapidly 
as possible to the scene of danger. He found upon 
the spot the body-guard, surrounded by a furious 
mob, determined to'massacre them. He threw him- 
self into the midst, called to his assistance some French 
guards, and having dispersed the assailants, and saved 
the body-guard, precipitated himself into the palace. 
He found it already succoured by his grenadiers, who, 
at the first rumor of the tumult had run thither, and 
rescued the life-guards from the fury of the Parisians. 
His grenadiers surrounded him, and vowed to die for 
the King. The whole court acknowledged themselves 
indebted to him for their lives. Madame Adelaide, 
the King's aunt ran up to him, and clasped him in her 
arms, saying, " General, you have saved us !" 

Tumult reigned without. The outside of the palace 
was still beseiged by the infuriated mob, demanding, 
with hideous cries, and exclamations the most ob- 
scene, to see " the Austrian," as they called the Queen. 
Others were shouting " to Paris ! to Paris ! the royal 
family to Paris !" Others demanded to see the King — 
that he should show himself at one of the windows. 
Louder and louder became these cries, and at last 
Louis XVI,, accompanied by La Fayette, presented 
himself at the balcony, and was greeted with shouts 
of "Vive le Roi!" The Q,ueen next walked out on 
the balcony, with one of-her children in each hand. 
" No children !" was cried out, as if on purpose to de- 
prive the mother of that appeal to humanity which 
might move the hardest heart. She gently pushed 
them back into the room, and turning her face to the 
tumultuous multitude, which tossed and roared be- 
neath, brandishing pikes and guns with the wildest 
attitudes of rage, she stood before them, her arms 
folded on her bosom, with a noble air of courageous 

by sitting as an academy-model to painters, and for that reason cul- 
tivated his long beard. He was subsequently distinguished in the 
massacres of Avignon. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 59 

resignation.* The secret reason of this summons — 
the real cause of repelling the children — could only be 
to afford a chance for some desperate hand among 
the crowd to execute the threats which resounded on 
all sides. A gun was actually levelled, but one of the 
bystanders struck it down ; for the passions of the 
mob had taken an opposite turn — and La Fayette, at 
this moment, with ready chivalry, stooped, took the 
hand of the Q,ueen, and kissed it respectfully. This 
act upon his part, together with her contempt of per- 
sonal danger, subdued the fury of the populace, and 
shouts of *' Long live the Q,ueen ! Long live La Fay- 
ette !" rent the air. And now the cry of " To Paris ! 
to Paris !" was resumed, and La Fayette persuaded 
the King, as the only means of appeasing the tumult, 
to accede to the wishes of the people, and, accompa- 
nied by the royal family, he again appeared on the 
balcony, and announced to the multitude that the 
King would comply.f The Assembly informed of his 
determination, hastily passed a resolution that it was 
inseparable from the King, and would accompany him 
to the capital. The carriages of the royal family were 
got ready, and placed in the middle of an immeasura- 
ble column, consisting partly of La Fayette's soldiers, 
partly of the revolutionary rabble. The King, his 
Queen, his sister Elizabeth, and the two royal children,, 
got into a carriage. A hundred deputies in other car- 
riages followed. At one o'clock the procession moved, 
A detachment of brigands, carrying in triumph the 
heads of the life guards, had set off two hours earlier. 
These cannibals stopped for a moment at Sevres, and 
carried their ferocity to such a pitch as to force a bar- 

* " She was dressed in white, her head was bare, and adorned 
wiih beautiful fair locks. Motionless, and in a modest and noble 
attitude, she appeared tome like a victim on the*block." — Lavallette. 

t " The Queen, on returning from the balcony, approached my 
mother, and said to her, with stifled sobs, " They are going to force 
the King and me to Paris, with the heads of our body-guards carried 
before us on pikes. Her prediction was accomplished." — Madam 
de StaeL 



60 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

ber to dress the hair of two bleeding heads. Before 
the King's carriage marched the fish-women, and the 
whole army of abandoned women, who had come the 
preceding day from Paris, still drunk with fury and 
wine. Several of them were astride upon the cannon, 
celebrating by the most abominable songs the spirit 
with which they were actuated. Others" nearer the 
King's carriage, were singing allegorical airs, and 
by their gross gestures applying the insulting allu- 
sions in them to the Queen. ' Carts laden with corn 
and flour, which had come to Versailles, formed a con- 
voy, escorted by grenadiers, and surrounded by wo- 
men and market-porters armed with pikes, or carry- 
ing large poplar boughs. This part of the cortege 
produced a singular effect; it looked like a moving 
wood, amidst which glistened pike-heads and gun- 
barrels. Many of the women, besides those astride 
the cannons, were mounted on the horses of the life- 
guards, some in masculine fashion, others en-croupe. 
Women on foot, trudging through the rain and mud, in 
the transports of their brutal joy, stopped passengers 
and yelled in their ears, while pointing to the royal 
carriage, " Courage, my friends ; we shall have plenty 
of bread now that we have got the baker, the baker's 
wife, and the baker's boy." * Loaves of bread, borne 
on the point of lances, everywhere appeared to indi- 
cate the plenty which the return of the sovereign was 
expected to confer upon the capital. Behind the car- 
riage were some of the faithful life-guard, partly on foot, 
partly on horseback, most of them without hats, all 
disarmed, and exhausted with hunger and fatigue. 
The dragoons, the Flanders regiment, the Swiss, and 
the National guards, preceded, accompanied, and fol- 
lowed the file of carriages. 

Such was the procession of fallen majesty from Ver- 
sailles to Paris, on Tuesday, the 6th of October, 1789, 
the most humiliating, and the most riotous ever exhibi- 

* " Nojis ne manquerons plus de pain ; nous amenons le boulanger, 
la boulangere, et le petit mitron." — Prudhomme. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 61 

ted. The procession has been estimated at 200.000. 
It filled the road for several miles, and was six hours 
in reaching the Hotel-de-Ville. One author, in speak- 
ing of it, compared it to one boundless inarticulate 
Ha ! ha ! of laughter. At the barrier, the King was 
harangued by M. Bailli, the mayor ; afterwards at the 
Hotel-de-Ville, by several speakers, and it was nearly 
eleven o'clock at night before he reached the Tuille- 
ries. There was joy, or an appearance of it, through- 
out all Paris, we are told. The King had " come with 
pleasure, and with confidence, among his people" — 
" and all the people grasped one another's hands." 



&i THE REIGN OF TERROR. 



CHAPTER III. 

Accusations by La Fayette against the Duke of Orleans — Murder 
of Denis Francois, a baker, by the mob. Robespierre — some ac- 
count of him — execution of the Marquis de Favras — Confiscation 
of church property — assignats — efforts to dissolve the National 
Assembly, which declares itself permanent till the constitution is 
completed. All titles of nobihty abolished. The fete of the Foede- 
ration, on theUth of July 1790, the anniversary of the destruction 
of the Bastille — festivities — illuminations — rejoicings. The royal 
family prevented by a mob from ^oing to St. Cloud — preparations 
of Louis XVI. for flight — Bouille — Mirabeau bribed by the Court 
— his magnificent entertainments — his ascendancy in the Assem- 
bly — his eloquence — his illness — his death — his funeral. Flight of 
the royal family from Paris on the 21st of June 1791. Consterna- 
tion of Paris on the foUoviring morning — Placards — Thomas Paine 
— the Jacobins — journey of the royal family — stopped at Var- 
ennes by Drouet, the post-master of that town — return of the royal 
family, surrounded by a great rabble, and amidst the execrations 
of the different towns through which they passed — murder of the 
Count de Dampierre at the side of the King's carriage — Bamave — 
Petion — entry of the royal family into Paris — no acclamations — 
silence of the multitude. The Assembly suspends Louis XVI. 
from his functions. Speech of Robespierre in regard to the in- 
violability of the King — speech of Barnave in reply. Placards upon 
the walls of Paris — the dethronement of the monarch, and the es- 
tablishment of a Republic openly agitated in the streets, at the 
Palais-Royal, and in all public places. The 17th of July 1791 — the 
red flag unfiarled — La Fayette fires upon the mob in the Charnps- 
de-Mars. The constitution completed. Dissolution of the first As- 
sembly on the 30th of Sep. 1791, Fetes — illuminations — rejoic- 
ings. Robespierre retires to Arras. 

The removal of the Court and the Assembly to Paris 
produced immediate changes of importance in the 
contending parties. La Payette exerted himself to 
show that the Duke of Orleans was the secret author 
of the disturbances which had so nearly proved fatal 
to the royal family, and declared publicly that he 
possessed undoubted proofs of his accession to the tu- 
mult. The Duke is stated to have skulked in disguise 
about the outskirts of the scene, but never to have had 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 63 

the courage to present himself boldly to the people, 
either to create a sensation by surprise, or to avail 
himself of that which his satellites had already excited 
in his favour. " The coward !" said Mirabeau ; he 
has the appetite for crime, but not the courage to exe- 
cute it." Even at the Palais-Royal his influence was 
lost, except with his hireling supporters ; and the King, 
glad to get rid of so dangerous a subject, with the en- 
tire concurrence of the Assembly, sent him into honor- 
able exile on a mission to the court of London. 
Tumults continued in Paris. A baker, named Denis 
Francois, was murdered in the streets on the 19th of 
October, by a mob, who were incensed at him, because 
he sold bread dear when he could only purchase 
grain at an enormous price. With the savage temper 
of the times, they stuck his head on a pike, and 
paraded it through the streets, compelling many of his 
brethren in the trade to kiss the bloody head. The 
wife of Francois, who was running in a state of 
distraction towards the Hotel-de-Ville, met the crowd ; 
at sight of the bloody head, she fainted on the pave- 
ment, and they had the barbarity to lower it into her 
arms, and press the lifeless lips against her face.* 
This unparallelled atrocity excited the indignation of 
all the better class of citizens. La Fayette, at the head 
of a detachment of the National guards, attacked and 
dispersed the assassins, and the active wretch, who 
carried the head, was tried, condemned and executed 
next day. The Assembly, acting upon the impulse of 
the moment, passed a decree against seditious assem- 
blages, known by the name of the decree of Martial 
Law. This decree was vehemently opposed by Rob- 
espierre, who about this time began to be conspicuous 
in the debates of the Assembly.f It was enacted that 

* Thiers. Scott. Alison. 

t Maxamilian Joseph Isadore Robespierre, bora in Arras, in 1759. 
His father was a barrister, who ruined himself by his prodigalities 
and fled to America, leaving his wife, with two children, to struggle 
against poverty. The Bishop of Arras became his patron, and sent 
him to the College of Louis le Grand. One of the professors there. 



64 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

on occasion of any serious disturbance, the municipal- 
ity should hoist the red fiag^ and after which signal, 
those who refused to disperse should be dealt with as 
open rebels. This edict tended to give the bayonets 
of the National guard a decided ascendency over the 
pikes and clubs of the rabble of the suburbs, and con- 
sequently met with much odium from those quarters, 
and elevated in their eyes such of the deputies as had 
opposed the passage of it into a law. 

The Marquis de Favras was at this period apprehend- 
ed with circumstances of public notoriety, and sent to 
the Chatelet. There were rumors of a plot against the 
Assembly, and he was the supposed ringleader. He 
was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged. 
" A la lanterne ! a la lanterne ! " was the cry of a 
ferocious multitude in the halls of justice, during the 
progress of the trial, and it is believed that the tribunal 
was intimidated into the sentence which it passed upon 
the accused. Favras protested his innocence, and 
demanded permission to make a declaration before he 
died. He displayed in his last moments a firmness 
more worthy a martyr than of an intriguer. After his 
sentence, he was conveyed to the" Hotel-de-Ville, 
where he remained till night, and a scaffold was 
quickly erected in the Place de Greve. The populace, 
eager to see a marquis hanged, impatiently awaited 
this example of equality in punishments ; thousands 
of them thronged round the scaffold while it was being 

an admirer of the heroes of Rome, contributed greatly to develop the 
love of republicanism in him ; he sumamed him the Roman, and 
continually praised his vaunted love of independence and equality. 
Assiduous and diligent, he went through his studies with much 
credit In 1775, when Louis XVI made his entry into Paris, he was 
chosen by his fellow-students to present to that prince the homage 
of their gratitude. The pohtical troubles of 1788 heated his brain, 
and in 1789, the tiers-etat of Artois appointed him one of their de- 
puties to the States General. He soon began to acquire great influ- 
ence over the populace. For some time he paid court to Mirabeau, 
who despised him ; yet he accompanied him so assiduously in the 
streets and public squares, that he was at last sumamed Mxrab^wii 
ape. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 65 

erected. Favras admitted having received a hundred 
louis from a nobleman of high rank, who had engaged 
him to dispose the public mind favourably towards the 
King, but uniformly declared he was no further impli- 
cated in any conspiracy. He marched with great 
firmness to the place of execution, clothed in a white 
shirt ; with a torch in his hand, he read, with a firm 
voice, his sentence of death, and again protested his 
innocence. It was night; the Place and the gibbet 
itself were lighted up ; the populace enjoyed the sight ; 
it was a subject of cruel jests to them, they encored 
the performance, and parodied, in various ways, the 
execution of this unfortunate man. The body of 
Favras was delivered to his family, and fresh events 
soon caused his death to be forgotten alike by those 
who had punished and those who had employed him. 
It was on the 19th of February, 1790, that his execu- 
tion took place.* 

The embarrassment of the finances now occupied 
the attention of the Assembly. All the measures taken 
for the relief of the public necessities since the convo- 
cation of the States-General had proved utterly un- 
availing. The nation, in truth, was subsisting entirely 
on borrowed money. In this emergency, the Assembly 
determined that the property of the Church should come 
under confiscation for the benefit of the nation. The 
proposition was made by Talleyrand, then Bishop of 
Autun. In support of it he argued that " the clergy 
were not proprietors, but depositaries of their estates ; 
that they were bestowed originally by the munificence 
of kings or nobles, and might now be resumed by the 
nation, which had succeeded to their rights." The 
funds thus acquired were enormous ; the church lands 
were nearly one half of the whole landed property of 
the kingdom. As it was impossible to bring this im- 
mense property at once to sale, and the necessities of 
the state being urgent, the Assembly adopted a sys- 
tem of paper money, called assignats^ which were 

♦ Thiers. 



66 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

secured or hypothecated upon the church lands. The 
fluctuation of this paper, which was adopted against 
Necker's earnest cautions, created a great spirit of 
stock-jobbing; notes, red, blue and green, were sub- 
stituted for cash, forced into circulation, and to be 
reimbursed only in the lands of the clergy. Trade 
revived ; the public treasury paid its debts, and indi- 
viduals hastened to acquit theirs also. 

Strenuous efforts were now made to dissolve the 
Assembly, the period for which the deputies had been 
elected (one year,) having expired ; the clergy and the 
aristocratical party were anxious to bring it about, 
and urged the sovereignty of the people, so recently 
proclaimed by the popular leaders as the basis of 
government, as their argument. To this it was re- 
plied, the dissolution of the Assembly, before the work 
of the constitution was finished, would lead to its de- 
struction. " What right have we to speak of perpetuat- 
ing our power?" said the Abbe Maury. " When did 
we become a National Assembly] Has the oath of the 
20th of June absolved us from that which we took to 
our constituents 1" Here Mirabeau ascended the tri- 
bune. " We are asked," said he, *' when our powers 
began. I reply, from the moment when, finding our 
place of assembly surrounded by bayonets, we swore 
rather to perish than abandon our duties towards the 
nation. Our powers have, since that great event, un- 
dergone a total change ; whatever we have done haa 
been sanctioned by the unanimous consent of the na- 
tion. You all remember the saying of the ancient 
patriot, who had neglected legal forms to save his 
country. Summoned by a factious opposition to an- 
swer for his infraction of the laws, he replied, *I swear 
that I have saved my country.' Gentlemen, I swear 
that 5''ou have saved France."* 

Electrified by this appeal, the Assembly rose by a 
spontaneous movement, and declared its sitting per- 
manent till the formation of the constitution was com- 

* Mignet ; Thiers ; Ferriere. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 67 

p]eted. The next act of the Assembly was to abolish 
all titles of nobility, all coats of arms or other signs of 
feudal times, "that neither the eyes nor ears of citi- 
zens might be offended by the remains of despotism." 
The judicial establishment underwent a total change. 
The parliaments of the provinces were suppressed. 
The pardoning power w^as taken from the sovereign. 
Trial by jury was universally introduced, and the 
jurors taken indiscriminately from all classes of citi- 
zens. The Court of Cassation was established at 
Paris. The military organization was entirely changed ; 
so effectually, that the National Guard, thirty thousand 
strong, under the command of La Fayette, was capa- 
ble of being increased, by beat of drum, to double 
the number, all in the highest state of discipline and 
equipment. 

Great preparations had been in progress to celebrate 
the 14th of July, the anniversary of the capture of the 
Bastille. In this celebration and fete, it had been ar- 
ranged that the whole nation should assist by deputies 
chosen from amongst the national guards of each de- 
partment throughout the kingdom. The fete was to 
be called a Fcederation, and w^as to serve as a testi- 
mony of the approbation of the whole people in favor 
of the Revolution. The deputies were to swear to 
obey the King and the Assembly, and to be faithful to 
the cause of Liberty. It was to be a meeting of bro- 
thers and friends, collected together in Paris from all 
parts of France, with one intention and one mind. 
The deputies had been constantly arriving for weeks 
previous to the appointed day, and enthusiasm was 
raised to its highest pitch. Early on the morning of 
the 14th, all Paris M^as in motion. Four hundred thou- 
sand persons repaired with joyful steps to the Champs- 
de-Mars, and seated themselves, amid songs of con- 
gratulation, upon the seats w^hich surrounded the 
plain.* " Two hundred thousand patriotic men; and, 
twice as good, one hundred thousand patriotic women, 

* Alison. 



68 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

all decked and glorified as one can fancy, sit waiting 
in this Champs-de-Mars. What a picture ! On the 
heights of Chaillot are many-colored undulating 
groups ; round and far on, over al] the circling heights 
that embosom Paris, it is as one more or less peopled 
amphitheatre, which the eye grows dim with measur- 
ing."* At seven o'clock the procession advanced. 
The electors, the representatives of the municipality, 
the presidents of the districts, the national guards, the 
deputies of the army, deputies firom all the provinces 
of the kingdom, and numerous other bodies, in gala 
dresses, and with banners flying, moved on in order 
to the stirring sounds of military music, and amidst 
the shouts and applause of the people. The quays 
were lined with spectators, the houses were covered 
with them. A bridge of boats across the Seine, and 
strewed with flowers, led from one bank to the other, 
facing the scene of the amphitheatre around which the 
four hundred thousand were already seated.f 

The King and the President of the Assembly sat 
beside one another on similar seats, sprinkled with 
golden fleurs-de-lis. Behind this there was an elevated 
balcony for the Q,ueen and court. It was three hours 
before the procession arrived, when they began to en- 
ter the amphitheatre under a triumphal arch. Sixty 
thousand persons now entered it, and performed their 
evolutions. In the centre, upon a base twenty-five 
feet high, stood the altar of the country. At the foot 
of this altar, the King and the National Assembly re- 
ceived the concourse. Three hundred priests, in white 

* Carlyle. 

t " The procession passed through the streets of St. Martin, St 
Denis, and St. Honore. Wine, ham, fruits, and sausages, were let 
down from the windows for them ; they were loaded with the peo- 
ple's blessings. La Fayette, surrounded by his aides-decamp, gave 
orders and received the homage of the people. The perspiration 
trickled from his face. The road leading to the Champs-de-Mars 
was covered with people, who clapped their hands and sang Ca Ira. 
The heights of Passy presented a spectacle, where the elegant 
dresses, the charms and the graces of the women, enchanted the 
eye." — Mem. of Ferriere. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 69 

surplices and tricolored scarfs, covered the steps, and 
were to officiate in the ceremony of the mass. 

The sky, whose brightness harmonizes so well with 
human joys, refused at this moment serenity and hght. 
Rain fell in torrents.* One of the battalions, as it came 
up, grounded arms, and conceived the idea of forming 
a dance. Its example was followed by all the others, 
and in a moment the intermediate space was filled by 
sixty thousand men, (soldiers and citizens,) opposing 
gayety of heart to the unfavorable weather. At length 
the ceremony commenced. The sky happily cleared, 
and threw its brilliancy over the scene. The Bishop 
of Autun, (Talleyrand,) began the mass. The choris- 
ters accompanied the voice of the prelate ; the cannon 
mingled with it their solemn peals. The mass over, 
La Fayette alighted from his superb white charger, 
ascended the steps of the throne, and received the or- 
ders of the King, who handed to him the form of the 
oath. La Fayette carried it to the altar. At that mo- 
ment all the banners waved, every sabre glistened. 
The general, the army, the president, the deputies 
cried, "I swear it." The King, standing, with his 
hand outstretched towards the altar, said, " I, King of 
the French, swear to employ the power delegated to 
me by the constitutional act of the state, in maintaining 
the constitution decreed by the National Assembly, 
and accepted by me." At this moment, the Q,ueen, 
moved by the general emotion, lifting the Dauphin in 
her arms, showed him to the people from the balcony 
where she was stationed, pledging herself for his ad- 
herence to the same sentiments ; in reply to which she 

*"A north wind, moaning cold moisture, began losing; and 
there descended a very deluge of rain, sad to see ! The thirty-staired 
seats, all round our amphitheatre, get instantaneously slated with mere 
umbrellas, fallacious when so thick set. From three to four thou- 
sand people feel that they have a skin. How all military banners 
droop; and will not wave, but lazily flap. Snowy muslins all 
splashed and draggled; the ostrich feather shrunk; all caps are 
ruined; beauty no longer swims decorated in her garniture." — 
CarlyLe. 

7 



70 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

received shouts of joy, attachment and enthusiasm. 
Discharges of artillery, the rolling of drums, the plaud- 
its of the populace, and the clashing of arms, rent the 
skies. 

In the evening, fireworks, illuminations, and festivi- 
ties prevailed; "Paris, out of doors and in, man, wo- 
man and child, is jigging it, to the sound of harp and 
four-stringed fiddle;" and the King, in a concealed 
caleche, enjoyed the general expression of happiness. 
These rejoicings lasted several days. There was a 
regatta on the river ; a general review of the military 
took place ; a public ball was held on the site of the 
Bastille, now an open square. Brilliant lamps made 
amends for daylight ; a tree of liberty, sixty feet high, 
was set up ; and they danced, with joy and security, 
on the same spot where formerly fell so many tears ; 
where courage, genius, and innocence had so often 
wept ; where so often were stifled the cries of despair. 
" In the Champs Elysees it is as radiant as day with 
festooned lamps ; little oil-cups, like variegated fire- 
flies, daintily illume the highest leaves ; trees there are 
all sheeted with variegated fire, shedding far a gUm- 
mer into the dubious woods."* There every one 
walked about, or sate, or danced, without rivalry, with- 
out animosity. All classes intermingled, enjoyed them- 
selves beneath the mild lamp-light, and seemed 
delighted to be together. Thus, even in the bosom of 
modern civilization, both sexes seemed to have found 
anew the times of primitive fraternity. Why, alas ! 
are these pleasures of concord so soon forgotten !f 

The deputies to the Poederation, after attending the 
discussions of the National Assembly, after witnessing 
the pomp of the court, and the magnificence of Paris, 
after experiencing the kindness of the King, whom 
they all visited, and by whom they were kindly re- 
ceived, returned to their respective homes in trans- 
ports of intoxication, full of good feelings and illusions. 

This peaceful exhibition between the court and the 

* Carlyle. t Thiers, &c. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 71 

people produced no permanent result. The revolution 
was not stopped. Reports circulated that the King 
projected a flight from the TuilJeries ; and he, doubt- 
less, considered himself as under forcible restraint 
ever since he had been dragged in triumph from Ver- 
sailles to Paris. His palace was guarded by eight 
hundred men, with two pieces of cannon. The people 
gave him no credit for sincerity ; and the public voice, 
in a thousand different ways, announced that his life 
would be the penalty of any attempt at his deliver- 
ance. The Jacobin club was active in promulgating 
its opinions, and one hundred and thirty-three Parisian 
journals discussed facts and principles. The minds 
of the people were kept in a continual ferment. Emi- 
gration of the nobility continued; the departure of the 
King's two aunts revived a suspicion of the royal 
family being upon the eve of a similar movement, and 
to such a height did the public anxiety arise, that the 
mob forcibly prevented a visit to St. Cloud which the 
King was desirous to make, under the pretext of seek- 
ing a change of air, but in reality, it maybe supposed, 
for the purpose of ascertaining what degree of liberty 
he would be permitted to exercise. The royal car- 
riages were drawn out, and the King and Queen had 
already entered theirs, when the cries of the specta- 
tors, echoed by those of the National Guards, who 
were on duty, declared that the king should not be 
permitted to leave the Tuilleries. * La Fayette arrived 

* "Their majesties have mounted. Crack go the whips; but 
twenty patriot arms have seized each of the eight bridles: there is 
rearing, rocking, vociferation ; not the smallest headway. In vain 
does La Fayette fret, indignant ; patriots in the passion of terror, 
bellow round the royal carriage. Rude voices passionately apostro- 
phize royalty itself. Her majesty has to plead passionately from the 
carriage window. Order cannot be heard, cannot be followed. La 
Fayette mounts and dismounts; runs haranguing, panting. Their 
majesties, counselled to it by royalist friends, by patriot foes, dis- 
mount; and retire in, with heavy indignant heart; giving up the 
enterprise. The King must keep his Easter in Paris ; meditating 
much upon this singular posture of affairs ; but as good as deter- 
mined to fly from it, desire being whetted by difficulty." — Carlyle. 



72 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

— commanded, implored, threatened the refractory 
guards, but was answered by their unanimous refusal 
to obey his orders. After the scene of tumult had 
lasted more than an hour, * and it was evident that 
La Fayette's authority was unable to accomplish his 
purpose, the royal persons re-entered the palace, now 
their absolute and avowed prison. [April 18, 1791.] 

Previous to this, the King, unable to endure the re- 
straint imposed upon him, had devoted the whole 
winter to preparations for flight. The zeal of Mira- 
beau was urged, and great promises were held out 
to him if he should succeed in setting the royal family 
at liberty. He formed a plan, which was that the 
King should retire from Paris to Compeigne, then 
under the government of the Marquis de Bouille ; that 
he should there assemble a royal army, and openly 
employ force to stem the torrent. Mirabeau for the 
interest he took in bringing about this plan, received a 
pension of nearly 4000 dollars a month, first from the 
Count D'Artois, and afterwards from the King. His 
style of living suddenly changed ; magnificent entertain- 
ments succeeded each other in endless profusion, and 
his house. No. 42 of the Rue de la Chaussee D'Antin, 
resembled rather the hotel of a powerful minister, than 
the leader of a fierce democracy. His influence in 
the Assembly was great, and the court considered his 
favor of the utmost importance. It is certain that he 
had the highest ascendency which any individual 
orator exercised over that body, and was the only 
one who dared to retort threats and deflance to the 
formidable Jacobins. " I have resisted military and 
ministerial despotism," said he, when opposing a pro- 
posed law against the emigrants ; " can it be supposed 
that I will yield to that of a club 1" And never was 

* " ' Seven quarters of an hour,* by theTuilleries clock." — Carlyle. 
*' La Fayette hastened to the spot, besought the King to remain in 
the carriage, assuring him that he would have a passage cleared for 
him. The King nevertheless alighted, and would not permit any 
attempt to be made. It was his old policy not to appear to be free. 
— Thiers, 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 73 

his eloquence more powerful than on this occasion, 
the last on which he ever addressed the Assembly. 
*' The sensation which the project of this law has ex- 
cited," he continued, " proves that it is worthy of a 
place in the code of Draco, and should never be re- 
ceived into the decrees of the National Assembly of 
France. It is high time you should be undeceived ; if 
you or your successors should ever give way to the 
violent counsels by which you are now beset, the law 
which you now spurn would be regarded as an act of 
clemency. In the bloody pages of your statute-book 
the word Death would be everywhere found ; your 
mouths would never cease to pronounce that terrible 
word ; your statutes, while they spread dismay within 
the kingdom, would chase to foreign shores all who 
gave lustre to the name of France ; and your exe- 
crable enactments would find subjects for execution 
only among the poor, the aged, and the unfortunate. 
For my own part, far from subscribing to such atro- 
cious measures, I should conceive myself absolved 
from every oath of fidelity to those who could carry 
their infamy so far as to name such a dictorial com- 
mission." Cries were raised on the left. " Yes," he 
repeated, " I swear" — He was again interrupted. 
"That popularity," he resumed, "to which I have 
aspired, and which I have enjoyed as well as others, 
is not a feeble seed; I will thrust it deep into the 
earth, and make it shoot up in the soil of reason and 
justice." " Applause burst forth from all quarters. " I 
swear," added the orator, " if a law against emigration 
is voted, I swear to disobey you." 

He descended from the tribune, after astounding the 
Assembly, and overawing his enemies. The discus- 
sion nevertheless continued. Murmurs, shouts, ap- 
plauses, succeeded. Mirabeau again demanded to be 
heard. " What right of dictatorship is it," cried M. 
Goupil, " that M. de Mirabeau exercises here?" — Mira- 
beau, without heeding him, hurried to the tribune. "I 
have not given you permission to speak,'' said the 
president. "Let the Assembly decide," said Mira- 

7* 



74 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

beau. But the Assembly listened without deciding. 
" I beg my interrupters," said Mirabeau, " to remem- 
ber that I have all my life combated tyranny, and that 
I will combat it wherever- I find it." As he uttered 
these words he cast his eyes from the right to the left. 
Loud applause followed his words. He resumed. " I 
beg M. Goupil to recollect that he was under a mistake 
some time since in regard to a Catahne, whose dicta- 
torship he this day attacks." * Fresh murmurs arose 
on the left. " Silence ! ye thirty voices I" Mirabeau 
exclaimed, at the pitch of his thundering voice, and the 
hall was instantly silent.f 

Mirabeau, on this occasion, was particularly striking 
by his boldness. Never, perhaps, had he more impe- 
riously over-ruled the Assembly, But these were his 
last triumphs. His end approached. For months past 
he had suffered from illness. In the preceding January, 
while presiding at the Assembly, he sat at the evening 
session with his neck wrapt in linen cloths. As he 
came to the Assembly on the morning in question, 
[March 27th] he was obliged to seek rest and help in 
the house of a friend, and lay there, for an hour, half 
fainting, stretched on a sofa. The wear and tear of his 
existence had been great. " If I had not lived with 
him," says Dumont, "I should never have known 
what a man can make of one day; what things may 
be placed within the interval of twelve hours. A day 
for this man was more than a week or month is for 
others ; the mass of things he guided on together was 
prodigious ; from the scheming to the executing not a 
moment was lost." 

• His life had been as remarkable for profligacy as ta- 
lents. Presentiments of death had sometimes mingled 
with his projects, and they had sometimes subdued his 
flights of fancy. He had latterly appeared in the tribune, 
pale and with his eyes deeply sunk in their orbits. He 
was subject to frequent fits of fainting. The 27th of 

* M Goupil, when attacking Mirabeau upon a former occasion, 
had exclaimed, " Cataline is at our doors!" 
1 Thiers; Scott; Alison. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 75 

March was the last day that he left his house. Anxious 
multitudes beset his doors, incessantly inquiring; 
crowds of all parties and all kinds ; of all ranks, from 
the King to the meanest man. The King sent twice a 
day to inquire. The people spontaneously kept si- 
lence ; no carriage was permitted to approach the 
house with its noise. He had enjoined that no phy- 
sicians should be called in; he was, nevertheless, 
disobeyed, and they found that death was approach- 
ing, and that it had already seized his extremities, 
His head was last attacked, as if nature had decreed 
that his genius should continue to shine till the very 
last moment. His death, albeit that of a skeptic, had 
something sublime in it. He was no stranger to 
his approaching dissolution ; but, far from being in- 
timidated by the prospect, he gloried in the name he 
was to leave. The priest of his parish came to offer 
his attendance, which he declined. His sufferings were 
severe. On the morning of April 2nd, he said, " I shall 
die to-day. Surround me with perfumes and the 
flowers of spring; dress my hair carefully; let me 
fall asleep amid the sound of harmonious music." 
Being aware that recovery was hopeless, he earnestly 
requested laudanum to put a period to his existenqe. 
Feigning to comply, those about his bed gave him a 
cup containing what they said was opium. He calmly 
drank it off, fell back on his pillow, and appeared satis- 
fied. In a moment after (at half past eight o'clock in 
the morning) he expired, aged forty-two. His death 
was felt by all as a public calamity; by the people, be- 
cause he had been the early leader and intrepid cham- 
pion of freedom ; by the royalists, because they trusted 
to his support against the violence of the Jacobins. 

His obsequies were celebrated with great pomp on 
the 4th. All Paris assembled at his funeral, which was 
celebrated by torch-light, amid the tears of innumer- 
able spectators. " Tlie people of Paris testified very 
evident marks of anxiety and grief; the whole of that 
immense city mourned hke a family that had lost its 
lather ; even the royalists were sorry, and many of 



76 THE REIGN. OF TERROR. 

them long after entertained the belief that if Mirabeau 
had lived, tlie revolution would have taken a more 
mild and favourable turn."* The procession was a 
league in length : consisting of the National guards, 
the National Assembly in a body, the Jacobin society, 
and other societies, the King's ministers, and the mu- 
nicipalities. At five in the afternoon it moved, sable 
plumes waving, muffled drums, trombones, and the 
long-drawn wail of music, amid the grief-hum of sor- 
rowing thousands. At the church of St. Eustache 
there was a funeral oration. Thence to the church 
of St. Genevieve, which the Assembly had converted 
into a Pantheon, dedicated Aux Grands Hommcs la 
Patrie recormaisante. It was midnigiit before the 
ceremony was concluded. The corpse was placed by 
the remains of Descartes. The bones of Voltaire, and 
subsequentl}'' those of Rousseau, were soon afterward 
removed to the same receptacle.! 

The death of Mirabeau did not extinguish the plan 
which had been formed by him for the escape of the 
King ; and the hostile movements of the populace 
tended to accelerate the flight. M. de Bouille was the 
person on whom the royal family depended in their 
distress. For some time past he had prepared every 
thing for their reception, and, under covert of a mili- 
tary movement on the frontier, had drawn together 
the troops most devoted to royalty to the camp at Mont- 
medy. On their side, the royal family were not inac- 
tive. Their design, known to few, was betrayed by 
none ; their manner indicated more than usual confi- 
dence. The dueen had secured a private door for 
quitting the palace ; and at eleven o'clock on the night 
of the 21st of June, [1791,] a coach " was drawn up in 
the Rue de I'Echelle, hard by the Carrousel and, out- 
gate of the Tuilleries, ' opposite Ronsin the saddler's 
door,' as if waiting for a fare." Madame de Tourzel, 
(" a hooded dame with two hooded children ") pro- 
ceeded to the carriage and entered it ; the Count de 

• Playfair. t Thiers; Alison; Carlyle; etc. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 77 

Fersen, disguised as a coachman, being on the driver's 
seat. Then came the King's sister, Madame Eliza- 
beth, " likewise hooded or shrouded, leaning on the 
arm of a servant." The King, in round hat and pe- 
ruke, disguised as a valet, came next. The Queen, 
shaded in a broad gipsy-hat, and attended by a single 
servant, was the last to leave the palace ; and she 
and her attendant being unacquainted with the streets 
of Paris, they lost their way. She met the carriage 
of La Fayette, which was accompanied by his ser- 
vants with flambeaux, and was obliged to conceal her- 
self behind the colonnade of the Louvre while it 
passed. Flurried by the flare and the rattle, and 
trembling at the danger she had escaped of being re- 
cognized, she took a wrong direction, and it was after 
midnight before she reached the carriage, w^here she 
was awaited with extreme impatience. The whole 
family, being now together, lost no time in setting 
off. They arrived, after a long ride, (driving about 
several streets, to deceive any one that might follow,) 
at the Porte St. Martin, and hastily got into a berline, 
with six horses, stationed there in waiting for them. 
Madame de Tourzel, by the name of Madame de 
Korff, in which name a passport had been obtained 
for her, was to pass for a mother travelling with her 
children, and the King for her valet-de-chambre. 
Three of the life-guards, in disguise, were to precede 
the carriage as couriers or to follow it as servants. 
At length they started, Count Fersen on the new box, 
with its new hammer-cloths, driving fast towards the 
forest of Bondy, where a chaise with two of the 
Queen's waiting-maids was to meet them. Here 
Count Fersen took his leave of' the royal family, 
amidst their thanks, and left the kingdom. The royal 
family travelled all night, during which Paris knew 
nothing of the matter.* 
The citizens of Paris were in the utmost consterna- 

* The King's brother, afterwards Louis XVIII, took, on the same 
night, the road to Flanders, and succeeded in reaching the frontier. 



78 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

tion when, on the following morning, the escape of 
the King was discovered. The National Assembly- 
met at nine in the morning, and listened to the read- 
ing of a memorial which the monarch had left behind 
him, and which, m his own hand writing, detailed the 
reasons that had provoked him to ily from Paris. The 
most vehement members of the popular party, who 
already began to be tired of the King, found in his 
absence an occasion to dispense with him, and in- 
dulged the hope of a republic. Du Chiitelet, and 
Thomas Paine, had the walls of Paris profusely plas- 
tered with their placard, announcing that there must 
be a Republic. Few persons were apprehensive, as 
formerly, of seeing the monarch threatening the con- 
stitution from amidst an army. The rabble alone, 
into whom this apprehension had been studiously in- 
stilled by the Jacobins, continued to entertain it when 
it was no longer felt by the Assembly, and ardently 
wished for the re-capture of the royal family. Groups 
met in the streets, and at the Palais-Royal, discussing 
the flight. The King was in the meantime pursuing 
his journey. The success of the enterprise, the dis- 
tance from Paris, the near approach of the royal corps 
under Bouille, occasioned a relaxation in precautions. 
Stoppages occurred, and the King " dismounted to 
walk up hills, and enjoy the blessed sunshine;" at 
Chalons, too, he frequently put his head out the win- 
dow, and at St. Menehould, the postmaster, Drouet, 
was struck by the resemblance of his countenance to 
the engraving on the assignats ; the age, the number 
of the royal family, confirmed him in his suspicions, 
and, after the carriage had departed, he sounded the 
alarm throughout the village, and despatched his son 
on a swift horse to cross the country, and have the 
carriage intercepted at the next post, Varennes. Young 
Drouet used such speed that he arrived at Varennes 
before the King, gave information to the municipality, 
and caused all the necessary measures to be taken to 
apprehend the fugitives. 
Varennes is situated on the bank of a narrow but 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 79 

deep river. The carriage reached this town at night, 
(eleven o'clock,) and halted, expecting a detachment 
of hussars in readiness to form an escort ; the officer 
in command there had watched till tired, and permit- 
ted his men to go into quarters. Young Drouet, joined 
by five of the villagers whom he had roused from 
their beds, instantly set to work in blockading the 
bridge, over which the route of the carriage lay, with 
a " furniture-wagon that they found there," and with 
whatever else they could lay hold of in the hurry of 
the moment. They then took their station under an 
archway, and awaited the carriage, which presently 
drove up. " Halt there ! Your passports !" Drouet ex- 
claimed, and at the same instant others stopped the 
horses, whilst levelled muskets were presented at the 
two coach doors. The passport was handed out. 
Drouet took it, and said it must be examined by the 
soliciter of the commune ; and the royal family were 
necessitated to step out of the carriage and be con- 
ducted to the house of the soliciter, M. Sausse, a grocer 
and tallow-chandler.* M. Sausse, having ascertained 
that a sufficient number of the National Guards had 
assembled, threw off all disguise, and informed the 
king that he was recognized and apprehended. An 
altercation ensued. Louis declared that he was not the 
king, and the dispute grew warm. "Since you ac- 
knowledge him to be your king," exclaimed the Q,ueen, 
angrily, "speak to him with the respect you owe 
him." Finally, Louis, seeing that further denial was 
useless, took no more trouble to disguise himself 
The little room was full of people. He spoke and ex- 
pressed himself with a warmth that was unusual to 
him. He insisted upon continuing his journey. With 
deep emotion, finding his authoritative language had 

" M. Sausse gives his arms to the Queen and sister Elizabeth ; 
Majesty taking the two children by the hand. And thus they walk, 
coolly back, over the market-place, to M. Sausse's ; mount mto his 
small upper story ; where straightway his majesty demands refresh- 
ments—gets bread and cheese, with a bottle of Burgundy ; and re- 
marks that it is the best Burgundy ever he drank r—Carlyle. 



80 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

no effect, he next embraced M. Sausse, and implored 
him. The Queen joined him, and taking the dauphin 
in her arms, besought Sausse to release them. Sausse 
was affected, but withstood their entreaties, and ad- 
vised them to return to Paris, to prevent a civil war. 
At this moment detachments arrived. The officers 
assembled them, informed them that the King was ar- 
rested, and that they must release him. The men 
replied that they were for the nation^ and refused to 
act. At the same instant the National Guards, called 
together from the environs, filled the town. The 
whole night was passed in this state. At six o'clock 
in the morning, young Romeuf, an aid-de-camp of La 
Fayette, arrived with the decree of the Assembly, au- 
thorizing the '* public functionaries to prevent, by all 
means in their power, the continuance of the journey." 
He went up stairs and delivered the decree. The 
King, finding how matters were, submitted, and the 
royal family re-entered the carriage, which, surround- 
ed by a great body of the National Guard, set out 
upon its return to Paris. All the route back to Paris, 
a great concourse (sixty thousand it is said) accom- 
panied the carriage, with much noise and tumult. At 
Epernay, three commisioners, sent by the Assembly, 
immediately after news of the arrest reached Paris, 
took command of the fugitives. These three were 
Petion, La Tour Maubourg, and Barnave, and all 
orders in respect of the journey emanated from them 
alone. During the journey, Barnave, though a stern 
republican, was so melted by the graceful dignity of 
the Queen, and impressed by the good sense and 
benevolence of the King, that he was ever afterward 
their friend.* He sat at the back of the carriage 
between the King and Q,ueen. Petion sat on the 
front seat, between Madame Elizabeth and the young 

* At first a deep silence prevailed. The King at length entered 
into conversation with Barnave ; it turned upon all sorts of subjects. 
The Queen was astonished at the superior understanding and delicate 
politeness of the young man : she soon threw up her veil, and took 
part in the conversation. — Thiers. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 81 

princess, the dauphin first on the lap of one and then 
on that of the other. The journey was slow, because 
the carriage followed the pace of the National Guards. 
The heat was excessive ; and the great cloud of dust, 
continually raised by the multitude, half suffocated 
the travellers. In contrast to the delicacy of Barnave, 
Petion displayed rudeness ; he ate and drank in the 
King's carriage with httle regard for the presence of 
royalty, throwing chicken bones out of the window, 
at the risk of hitting the King in the face. He had the 
little dauphin on his knee ; he amused himself with 
rolling the fair hair of the boy in his fingers, and he 
pulled his locks with such force as to make the child 
cry. " Give me, my child," said the Q,ueen ; " he is 
accustomed to kindness, to respect, which unfit him 
for such familiarities."* 

During the journey, the two body-guards who had 
accompanied the flight, were chained on the outside 
of the carriage; peasants armed with scythes and 
pitchforks, mixed with the escort, uttering the bitter- 
est reproaches; and at each village the people as- 
sembled to vent their execrations. The Count de 
Dampierre, a nobleman inhabiting a chateau near the 
road, approached the carriage with an attempt to kiss 
the hand of the monarch. He was instantly pierced 
by several balls from the escort, his blood sprinkled 
the carriage, and his remains were torn to pieces by 
the savage multitude, f A few leagues from the place 
where this crime was committed, a poor village cure, 
had the imprudence to approach for the purpose of 
speaking to the King ; the savages rushed upon him. 
" Tigers !" cried Barnave, " have you ceased to be 
French 1 Prom a nation of brave men, are you changed 
into a nation of murderers ]" Nothing but these words 
saved the cure, who was already struck to the ground, 
from instant death. | 



* Memoirs of Madame Campan. Thiers. t Alison, 

t Madame Campan. " Baraave, as he uttered these words, had 
almost thrown himself out at the door, and Madame Elizabeth, 



82 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

In Paris, the reception to be given to the royal 
family had been decided upon. Neither applause nor 
insults were heard. " So on Saturday evening, about 
seven o'clock, Paris is again drawn up ; not now 
dancing the tri-color joy-dance of hope ; nor as yet 
dancing the fury-dance of hate and revenge; but in 
silence."* The carriage made a circuit, that it might 
not be obliged to traverse Paris. It entered by the 
Champs Elysees, which led directly to the palace. An 
immense crowd received it in silence, and with hats 
on. The life-guards were on the box, exposed to the 
gaze and the wrath of the populace ; they, neverthe- 
less, experienced no violence.! La Fayette went for- 
ward to meet the procession. During his absence a 
great throng had been permitted to approach and 
gather around the Tuilleries. The Q,ueen, anxious for 
the safety of the life-guards, no sooner saw the com- 
mander-in-chief, than she exclaimed, " Save the gardes- 
du-corps;" and La Fayette placed them himself in 
security in one of the halls of the palace.| The royal 
family hastily alighted, and passed between a double 
file of National Guards, drawn up for its protection. 

By a decree of the Assembly, Louis XVI. was now 
temporarily suspended from his functions, and a guard 
placed over his person, and that of Marie Antoinette 
and the dauphin. All the liberty extended to Louis was 
that of walking in the garden of the Tuilleries in the 
morning before it was opened to the public. It is said 
that he now occupied himself in studying the history of 
the English Revolution with particular attention. He 
had always been powerfully struck by the fall of Charles 
the First, and he could not help feeling sinister fore- 
bodings. He had particularly remarked the motive of 
Charles's condemnation — civil war; and hence con- 
touched by his noble warmth, held him back by his coat. In speak- 
ing of this circumstance, the Queen said that in the most critical 
moments she was always struck by odd contrasts ; and that, on thia 
occasion, the pious Elizabeth, holding Barnave by the skirt of the 
coat, had appeared to her a most ridiculous scene." — Mad. Campau. 

* Carlyle. t Thiers. X Mem. of La Fayette. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 83 

tracted an invincible horror of every measure that 
could produce bloodshed.* 

A fresh insurrection of the rabble was plotted by the 
Jacobins. Robespierre, and others, in the Assembly, 
argued that the King's flight was abdication of the 
throne, and that nothing remained but to proclaim a 
republic ; whilst at the Palais-Royal, in the gardens, and 
at the corners of the streets, demagogues harangued 
the vicious and idle portion of the population. The 
examination of the King, on the object of his journey 
to Varennes, brought out in debate the distinguished 
leaders on both sides. The inviolability of the^King's 
person was the basis of the argument, and eloquently 
insisted upon by Barnave. In answer to which Robes- 
pierre answered, " To admit the inviolability of the 
King for acts which are personal to himself, is to estab- 
lish a god upon earth. We can allow no fiction to 
consecrate impunity to crime, or give any man a right 
to bathe our families in blood. But you have decreed, 
it is said, this inviolability. So much the worse. An 
authority more powerful than that of the Constitution 
now condemns it, the authority of reason, the con- 
science of the people, the duty of providing for their 
safety. The constitution has not decreed the absolute 
inviolability of the sovereign; it has only declared him 
not answerable for the acts of his ministers. To this 
privilege, already immense, are you prepared to add 
an immunity from every personal offence — from per- 
jury, murder, or robber}'-] Shall we, who have levelled 
so many other distinctions, leave this, the most dan- 
gerous of them all 7 Ask of England if she recognizes 
such an impunity in her sovereigns ? Would you be- 
hold a loved son murdered before your eyes by a 
furious King, and hesitate to deliver him over to a 
criminal justice ? Enact laws which punish all crimes 
without exception — or suffer the people to avenge them 
for themselves. You have heard the oaths of the King. 
Where is the juryman who, after having heard this 

* Thiers. 
8* 



84 ' THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

manifesto, and the account of the journey, would hesi- 
tate to declare the King guilty of perjury, that is, 
felony to the nation '? The "King is inviolable; but so 
are you. Do you now contend for his privilege to 
murder with impunity millions of his subjects ] Do 
you dare to pronounce the King innocent, when the 
nation has pronounced him guilty] Consult its good 
sense, since your own has abandoned you. I am 
called a republican. Whether I am or not, I declare 
my conviction, that any form of government is better 
than that of a feeble monarch, alternately the prey of 
contending factions." 

"Regenerators of the empire," rejoined Barnave, 
"follow, continue the course you have commenced. 
You have already shown that you have courage enough 
to destroy the abuses of power ; now is the time to 
demonstrate that you have wisdom to protect the in- 
stitutions you have formed. At the moment we evince 
our strength, let us manifest our moderation ; let us 
exhibit to the world, intent on our movements, the fair 
spectacle of peace and justice. What would the trial 
of a King be but the proclamation of a republic 1 Are 
you prepared to destroy, at the first shock, the Con- 
stitution you have framed with so much care 7 You 
are justly proud of having closed a revolution without 
a parallel in the annals of the world, — and will you 
now commence a new one? Will you now open a 
gulf of which no human wisdom can see the bottom ; 
in which laws, lives and property would be alike 
swallowed up T With wisdom and moderation you 
have exercised the vast powers committed to you by 
the state — you have created Liberty ! — and beware of 
substituting in its place a violent and sanguinary des- 
potism. Be assured that those who now propose to 
pass sentence on the King, will do the same to your- 
selves when you first thwart their ambition. If you 
prolong the revolution, it will increase in violence. 
You will be beset with clamors for confiscations and 
murders ; the people will never be satisfied but with 
substantial advantages, and they cannot be obtained 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 85 

but by destroying their superiors. The world has 
hitherto been awed by the powers we have developed; 
let them now be charmed by the gentleness which 
graces them."* 

But " No King' ! No King .'" was the general cry at 
the meetings of the Jacobins, in the streets, and in the 
public papers. Numberless addresses were published. 
One of these (before referred to,) was posted on all 
the walls of the city, and at the door of the Assembly. 
It was signed with the name of Achille Duchatelet, a 
young colonel. He addressed himself to the French. 
He reminded them of the tranquillity which had pre- 
vailed during the journey of the King, and thence con- 
cluded that his absence was more beneficial than his 
presence ; he added that his flight was an abdication, 
that the nation and Louis XVI. were released from all 
engagements to each other ; finally, that history was 
full of the crimes of kings, and that the people ought 
to renounce all intention of giving themselves another. 
This address was from the pen of the celebrated Tho- 
mas Paine, who, after the publication, in England, of 
his " Rights of Man," was chosen a member of the 
National Assembly. 

The commotion increased. On the morning of the 
17th July, a petition for the dethronement of Louis 
XVI. was carried to the Champs-de-Mars, and laid 

^ " Antoine Pierre Joseph Barnave, the son of a very rich attor- 
ney at Grenoble, sent a deputy to the States-General. On the news 
of Louis XVI.'s flight, Barnave showed great presence of mind in 
the midst of the stupefaction of the Assembly, and was appointed 
one of the commissioners to bring the royal family back to Paris. 
He returned in the same carriage with them ; showed them great 
respect, and, by so doing, lost much of his popularity. In contend- 
ing for the inviolability of the King's person, he was hooted by the 
Assembly. After the 10th of August, 1792, certain documents, 
found in the iron chest, having established the connivance of Bar- 
nave with the court, he was brought before the Revolutionary Tri- 
bunal, and was guillotined 29th INlovember, 1793. He was a small, 
but well-looking man, and professed the Protestant religion. Few 
orators of his day possessed so much grace of diction and sagacity 
of analysis." — Biographic Moderne. 



86 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

upon the altar of the Fosderation for the people to sign it* 
The crowd of the seditious was reinforced by that of 
the curious. Whilst the petition was being signed, 
it was announced that a decree had passed the Assem- 
bly declaring the inviolability of the monarch and that 
he could not be dethroned. La Fayette arrived with 
the National Guards, broke down the barricades 
already erected, was threatened and even fired at ; 
but, though almost close to the muzzle of the weapon, 
he escaped uninjured. The municipal officers having 
joined him, at length prevailed on the populace to re- 
tire. National Guards were placed to watch their re- 
treat, and for a moment it was hoped that the disper- 
sion would pass of peacably. But the tumult was soon 
renewed. Two invalides were murdered and the 
uproar became unbounded. f The 7'ed Jiag was un- 
furled. Bailli, the mayor, advanced with unshrinking 
firmness and read the summons. He was several 
times fired at. La Fayette at first ordered a few shots 
to be fired in the air ; but ineffectually, and, driven to 
extremity, he gave the word " Fire.'''' The discharge 
killed and wounded several hundred of the rioters, and. 
the severe example quieted the agitators for the time. 
The leading Jacobins slunk in terror to their hiding- 
places. La Fayette and Bailli were vehemently re- 
proached, but both of them, considering it their duty 
to observe the law, and to risk popularity and life in 
its execution, felt neither regret, nor fear, for what 
they had done. 

* " On the morning of the 17th, two different bands of the people were 
in motion ; one decently clothed, grave in manner, small in number, 
headed by Brissot ; the other, hideous in aspect, ferocious in lan- 
guage, formidable in numbers, under the guidance of Robespierre. 
'We will repair,' said they, ' to the Field of the Fcederation, and a 
hundred thousand men will dethrone the perjured King. This day 
shall be the last of all the friends of treason.' "—Alison. 

t " Two invalides had placed themselves under the altar to 
observe this extraordinary scene ; a cry arose that they were assassins 
placed there to blow up the leaders of the people ; they beheaded the 
unhappy wretches on the spot, and paraded their heads on pikes 
around the altar of France." Alison. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 87 

The Assembly, by this triumph, or the necessity of 
having Recourse to it, over the rabble, lost its popular- 
ity with them. It now proceeded to complete and 
give the last touches to the constitution, and bring its 
stormy career to a calm conclusion. It also decreed 
that its members should be excluded from the next 
legislature. The constitution was accordingly com- 
pleted with some haste, and submitted to the King for 
his acceptance. The strict watch kept over the palace 
ceased, and he was permitted to retire whithersoever 
he pleased, to examine the constitutional act and to 
accept it freely. After a certain number of days, he 
accepted it. He repaired to the Assembly, where he 
was received as in the most brilliant times.* La- 
Fayette, who never forgot to repair the evils of politi- 
cal troubles, proposed a general amnesty for all acts 
connected with the revolution, which was proclaimed 
amidst shouts, and the prisons were instantly thrown 
open. 

At length, on the 30th of September, 1791, Thouret, 
the last president, declared that the Constituent As- 
sembly had terminated its sittings. Louis XVI. 
attended in person, and spoke. " In returning to your 
constituents," said he, " you have still an important 
duty to discharge ; you have to make known to the 
citizens the real meaning of the laws you have enact- 
ed, and to explain my sentiments to the people. Tell 
them that the King will always be their first and best 
friend ; that he had need of their affection ; that he 
knows no enjoyment but in them and with them ; that 
the hope of contributing to their happiness will sustain 
his courage, as the satisfaction of having done so will 
constitute his reward." 

At the breaking up, Robespierre and Petion were 

* Thiers. — " But the altered state of the royal authority was evin- 
ced by the formahties observed even in the midst of the general 
enthusiasm. The monarch was no longer seated on a throne apart 
from his subjects ; two chairs, in every respect alike, were allotted to 
him and to the president ; and he did not possess, even in appearance, 
more authority than the leader of that haughty body."— AZison. 



88 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

borne to their places of residence on the shoulders of 
the people, with loud acclamations. 

Cries of "Vive le Roi !" were again heard saluting 
the King ; their majesties visited the opera, gave money 
to the poor, and even the Q,ueen was occasionally- 
cheered. " To and fro, amid those lamp-galaxies of 
the Elysian Fields, the ro3^al carriage slowly wends 
and rolls ; ever3^where with vivats, from a multitude 
striving to be glad. Louis looks out, mainly on the 
variegated lamps and gay human groups, with satis- 
faction enough for the hour. In her majesty's face, 
* under that kind graceful smile, a deep sadness is leg- 
ible.' " Magnificent fetes were ordered by the King, 
which exhausted the already weakened resources of 
the throne; the palace and gardens of the Tuilleries 
were superbly illuminated. 

Robespierre retired to his native town of Arras, sold 
a small inheritance he had there, and, after seven 
weeks, returned to Paris, accompanied by a brother 
and sister, and to his old lodging, at the cabinet- 
maker's in the Rue St. Honore. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 89 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Jacobin club — the Cordeliers club — the Feuillans club — Camilla 
Desmoulins and George James Danton — some account of them — 
Robespierre at the Jacobin club. Opening of the new Assembly 
on the 30th of October, 1791. Petion elected mayor of Paris. 
Brissot— La Fayette unpopular. Reception of the Duke of Or- 
leans at Court — he is spit upon by the courtiers — his rage and 
vexation. Roland — his wife — Dumouriez — interview between 
Marie Antoinette and Dumouriez. Massacres at Avignon — Jour- 
dan — gibbets — hanging of aristocrats — havoc and anarchy — terri- 
ble feelings between the aristocrats and patriots in Avignon — 
placards — massacre of the patriot L'Escuyer at the foot of the 
altar in the church at Avignon — vengeance of the patriots — Jour- 
dan closes the gates of the town and guards the wails — the body 
of L'Escuyer carried on a bier — dreadfiil massacres — the Ice- 
tower — pillage — violation of women — wailing, pity, rage ! The 
National Assembly, on the 20th of April, 1792, declares war be- 
tween France and Austria. Murmurs against the Court. Roland 
— Dumouriez — and the Girondists. Marat — his tirades against 
the priests and aristocrats. Excitement — distrust — decree of ban- 
ishment against all priests that did not take an oath to the consti- 
tution, and a decree for the establishment of a camp of twenty- 
thousand men around the walls of Paris — hesitation of the King 
to confirm these two decrees, and the consequent exasperation of 
the Jacobins. Roland dismissed from the ministry, Dumouriez 
at the Assembly, Despondency of Louis XVL The Jacobins — 
bonnet rouge. Anniversary of the Oath at the Tennis Court, and 
immense gatherings in the suburbs — the procession — pikes — tri- 
colors — sans-culottes— mob defile before the Assembly — proceed 
to the Tuiileries, and burst into the palace— peril of the royal 
family— Louis XVI. Marie Antoinette — Madame Elizabeth — JN^a- 
poleon Bonaparte — La Fayette. The Jacobins burn La Fayette 
in effigy. Approach of the Prussian army — excited state of Paris 
— speech of Vergniaud in the Assembly. The Marsellais, etc. 

The old Assembly had broken up. Its members had 
returned to the bosoms of their families or were scat- 
tered throughout Paris. The clubs gained at this 
period great importance. Thither resorted all who 
lonsced to speak, to take an active part, to agitate. 
The oldest of the clubs, that of the Jacobins, was so 



90 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

numerously attended that in the church, in which it 
was held, there was scarcely sufficient room for its 
members and auditors. An immense amphitheatre 
rose in the form of a circus, and occupied the whole 
great nave of the church ; a desk was placed in the 
centre, at which sat the president and secretaries. This 
club, from its seniority and persevering violence, had 
constantly maintained an ascendency over all those 
that had desired to show themselves more moderate or 
even more vehement. The moderate declaimers met 
at what was called the club of the Feuillans. Another 
club, that of the Cordeliers, endeavoured to rival in 
violence that of the Jacobins ; Camille Desmoulins 
was its secretary,* and Danton its president.! Dan- 
ton, who had not been successful in his practice as a 
lawyer, had gained the admiration of the multitude, 
which he powerfully excited by his athletic figure, his 

* " B. Camille Desmoulins, a lawyer, born at Guise, in Picardy, in 
1762. His appearance was vulgar, his complexion swarthy, and his 
looks unprepossessing. At the commencement of the Revolution, he 
and Robespierre formed an intimacy. It was he who harangued the 
crowd in the Palais-Royal, on Sunday, 12th of July, 1789, with pis- 
tols in his hand. He frequently asserted that society consisted of 
two classes — gentlemen and sans-culottes ; and that to save the re- 
public, it was necessary to take the purses of the one, and put arms 
in the hands of the other. His connexion with Danton was his 
ruin ; and his sentence of death the word ' clemency,' which he re- 
commended in a journal, published by him, the Old Cordelier. He 
was arrested in 1794. When led to execution, at the age of thirty- 
three, he made the most violent efforts to avoid getting into the cart. 
His shirt was in tatters, and his shcujders bare; his eyes glared, and 
he foamed at the mouth. His wife, whom he adored, and by whom 
he was as warmly beloved, begged to share his fate, and, ten days 
afterwards, Robespierre sent her to the scaffold, where she exhibited 
much more firmness than her husband had done," Biographie 
Moderne. 

t George Jacques Danton, bom Oct. 26. 1759. His stature was 
colossal ; his features harsh, large and disagreeable. His eloquence 
was vehement, his voice stentorian. He was sometimes denomina- 
ted the Mirabeau, sometimes the Alcibiades of the rabble. He may 
be said to have resembled both ; in his tempestuous passions, popu- 
lar eloquence, dissipation, and debts, like the one ; in his ambition, 
his daring, and inventive genius, like the other. He exerted his 
faculties, and indulged his voluptuary indolence alternately, by starts. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 91 

sonorous voice, and his popular passions. Robespierre 
intrenched himself at the Jacobins, where he ruled 
without a partner, by the dogmatism of his opinions 
and by a reputation for integrity which had gained for 
him the epithet of Incorruptible. 

The new Assembly opened its sittings on the 1st of 
Oct. 1791. The composition of this assembly was wholly 
popular. All the nation having partaken of the spirit 
of the revolution, neither tlie court, the nobles, nor the 
clergy, exercised any influence over the elections. 
There were not, as in the preceding assembly, any 
partizans of absolute power or peculiar privileges. 
But opinions and parties soon discovered themselves. 
There were a rights a centre, and left, as in the consti- 
tuent assembly, but possessing a character altogether 
different. The left formed the party called the Giron- 
dins, at the head of which were the brilliant orators 
from the department of Gironde, from which it took 
its name. These orators were Vergniaud, Guadet, 
Gensonne, and others whose eloquence was as glow- 
ing as theirs. Its principal leader was Brissot, whose 
activity of mind exerted itself by turns in the journal 
called The Patriot, in the tribune of the Assembly, 
and at the Jacobin club. It had in it, also, the rudi- 
ments of a faction which went far beyond the main 
party in opinion. This was the germ of that fac- 
tion which, out of doors, served as auxiliaries to the 
Girondins, and regulated the affiliation of the clubs and 
the multitude. Robespierre, in the society of the Ja- 
cobins; Danton and Desmoulins, at the Cordeliers; 
together with the brewer, Santerre, in the suburbs, 
where the popular strength resided; were the real 
chiefs of that faction which trusted for its support to 
an entire class of the population.* Santerre, by his 
stature, his voice, and a certain fluency of speech, 
pleased the people, and had acquired by these, and by 
his large capital, a kind of sw^ay in the fauxbourg St. 
Antoine, the battalion of which he commanded ; and, 
like all men who are too easily wrought upon, he was 

* Mignet. 
9 



92 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

capable of becoming very dangerous, according to the 
excitement of the moment. He attended all the fac- 
tious meetings held in the distant fauxbourgs. He had 
already distinguished himself at the taking of the Bas- 
tille.* It is said that the assassination of Marie Antoi- 
nette was plotted by him, and that he engaged a grena- 
dier of his batallion to perpetrate the crime ; that the 
grenadier gained access to the Tuilleries, was discov- 
ered, but had the address to escape,! Another of this 
out-door faction was Legendre, the butcher, one of 
the earliest and most violent leaders of the mob.J 
Another was Rossighol, a journeyman goldsmith. 
And there were several others, among which were 
Carra, the journalist, and Alexandre, commandant of 
the fauxbourg St. Marceau, who, by their communi- 
cations with the populace, could at any moment set all 
the fauxbourgs in commotion. By the most conspicu- 
ous among them they communicated with the chiefs 
of the popular party, and were thus able to conform 
their movements to a superior direction. 

On the 30th two decrees were passed; one, com- 
manding the King's brother to return to France, under 
pain of being held to have abdicated his eventual right 
to the regency; the other, declaring all the French 
without the kingdom engaged in a conspiracy against 
the constitution, and subjecting all those who should 
not return before the 1st of January to the penalty of 
death, and confiscation of their estates. 

The choice of a mayor for the city of Paris, shortly 
after occupied the attention of the capital. La Fayette 
was the candidate of the moderate party, while Petion 
was the favourite of the Jacobins. The court, jealous 

* Thiers. t Mem. de MoUeville. 

t " In 1793 he voted for the King's death, and, the day before his 
execution, proposed to the Jacobins to cut him into eighty-four 
pieces, and send one to each of the departments. He was one of 
the chief instigators of the atrocities at Lyons ; and at Dieppe, when 
some persons complained of the want of bread, he answered, " well, 
eat the aristocrats !' He died at Paris in 1797, aged forty-one, and 
bequeathed his body to the surgeons, ' in order to be useful to man- 
kind after his death.' " — Biographic Moderne. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 93 

of La Payette — Marie Antoinette especially disliked 
him — had the imprudence to throw the weight of the 
crown into the scale for Petion, and even expended 
large sums of money to promote his election. 

A war with Austria was now strongly called for. 
But at the Jacobin club, where it was discussed, Robes- 
pierre was in favor of peace. Was he afraid of war 1 
or did he oppose it only because Brissot,* his rival at 
the same cJub, supported it, and because young Lou- 
vetf defended it with ability 1 Some expressed them- 
selves as afraid of a war, lest it should give too many 
advantages to La Payette, and procure for him a mili- 
tary dictatorship. This was the continual fear of Ca- 
mille Desmoulins, who never ceased to figure La 
Fayette as at the head of a victoi'ious army, shooting 
down the people as he had done on the 17th of July 
last in the Champs-de-Mars. Louvet and his party 
supposed Robespierre hostile to La Fayette because 

* " Brissot de Warville, born in 1754, at a village near Chartres. 
His father kept a cook shop, which occasioned the saying that the 
son had all the heat of his father's stoves. After passing four years 
in an attorney's office, he turned author, and, at twenty years of age, 
had already published several works, one of which occasioned his 
imprisonment in the Bastille in 1784. He married a person attached 
to the household of the Duchess d'Orleans, and afterwards went to 
England. He lived there on pay as a spy from the lieutenant of 
police at Paris. At the same time he employed himself in literature, 
and endeavoured to form an academy in London; but, this specula- 
tion proving unsuccessful, he returned to France, and distinguished 
himself greatly during the Revolution. At the time of the trial of 
Louis XVI., he strove to bring the subject of his condemnation be- 
fore the people, and afterwards voted for his death, though he was 
anxious to retain a reprieve. Being denounced, together with the 
rest of the Girondins, by the Jacobins, he was guillotined in 1793. 
He was so passionate an admirer of the Americans, that he adopted 
the appearance of a Quaker, and was pleased to be mistaken for 
one." — Biographic Moderne. 

t Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray was an advocate, and dis- 
tinguished actor in the French Revolution. He attached himself 
to the Girondins, and was included in the order of arrest issued in 
1794 against that party. He, however, managed to escape, and lay 
concealed in Paris until after the fall of Robespierre. He died at 
Paris in '1797. He is known as the author of a licentious novel, The 
Chevalier Fauhlas. 



94 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

of the latter's enmity to the Duke of Orleans, with 
whom the Jacobins were said to be secretly united. 
The Duke, having some time since returned from 
England, and feeling himself out of place with the pop- 
ular party, had endeavoured to obtain the pardon of 
the court during the latter days of the Constituent As- 
sembly and had been repulsed. Bertrand de Molle- 
vilie, in his memoirs, gives the following account of 
the circumstance. " I made a report to the council on 
the same day of the visit paid me by the Due d'Or- 
leans, and of our conversation. The King determined 
to receive him, and next day had a conversation with 
him that lasted over half an hour, and with which his 
majesty seemed to be much pleased. 'I think, like 
you,' said his majesty, ' that he is perfectly sincere, 
and will do all in his power to repair the mischief he 
has done, and in which possibly he may not have 
taken so much part as we imagined.' On the Sunday 
following, the Duke came to the King's levee, where 
he met with the most humiliating reception from the 
courtiers, who were ignorant of what had passed, and 
from the royalists, who were in the habit of repairing 
in great numbers to the palace on that day, to pay 
their court to the royal family. They crowded round 
him, treading on his toes, edging him towards the 
door, and he went down stairs to the Queen, whose 
table was already laid. The moment he appeared, a 
cry was raised of 'take care of the dishes!' as though 
it was feared he had poison with him to throw into 
them ; and the insulting language which his presence 
everywhere excited, forced him to retire without see- 
ing the royal family. He was pursued to the Queen's 
staircase, where they spat upon his head and several 
times upon his coat. Rage and vexation were depict- 
ed in his face ; and he left the palace convinced that 
the outrages he had received were instigated by the 
King and Queen, who knew nothing of the matter, 
and who indeed were extremely angry about it. He 
swore implacable hatred against them, and kept but 
too faithfully his horrid oath. I was at the palace that 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 95 

day, and witnessed all the circumstances I have here 
related." The prince had a right to be exasperated ; 
and his friends at the Jacobin club, and in the Assem- 
bly, thought fit to make a noise about the circum- 
stance ; hence it was supposed his faction was again 
raising its head, and that his pretensions and his hopes 
were renewed by the dangers of the throne.* 

A new ministry was formed. M. Roland was made 
minister of the interior ; he had formerly been in- 
specter of manufactories, and had distinguished him- 
self by some excellent publications on industry and 
the mechanical arts. This man, with austere man- 
ners, inflexible opinions, yielded, without being aware 
of it, to the superior ascendency of his wife. Living 
in the closest friendship with her husband, she lent him 
her pen, and communicated to him a portion of her 
own vivacity. She was the daughter of a distinguish- 
ed engraver who ruined his fortune by dissipation.! 
M. Dumouriez (subsequently so celebrated as general 
of the French armies) received the port-folio of foreign 
affairs. La Coste, Claviere, Duranthon, and Servan, 
were severally appointed to the marine, the finances, 
the judicatory, and war. The court strove to throw 
ridicule on the somewhat republican simplicity of the 
new ministry. They termed it the sans-culotte minis- 
try. Roland was a plain man, and the first time he 
presented himself at the palace, he appeared without 
buckles to his shoes, and in a round hat. The master 
of ceremonies refused to admit him in this unusual 
costume, not knowing who he was ; being afterwards 
informed, and in consequence obliged to do sO, he 
turned to Dumouriez, with a sigh of despair at such 
an innovation, saying, "Ah, sir, no buckles in his 
shoes !" To which Dumouriez, with sarcastic irony, 

* Thiers; Molleville; &c. 

t " Madame Roland was the soul of the Girondists ; she was the 
point around which assembled those briUiant and courageous men, 
to discuss the wants and the dangers of their country. It was she 
who aroused those whom she knew to be able in action, and directed 
to the tribune the efforts of those whom she knew to be eloquent."— 
Mignet. ^^ 



96 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

replied, " All is lost !" And the latter, mingling mirth 
with business, pleased Louis XVL, charmed him by 
his wit, and suited him better than the other ministers 
from the flexibility of his opinions. Marie Antoinette, 
perceiving he had more influence over the mind of the 
monarch than any of his colleagues, was desirous of 
seeing him. In his memoirs he has recorded the inter- 
view that took place. On being ushered into her 
apartment, he found her alone, her face much flushed, 
walking hastily to and fro, with an agitation which 
seemed to betoken a warm explanation. He was 
going to post himself at the corner of the fire-place, 
painfully affected by the agitated state of this princess, 
and the terrible sensations from which she was suffer- 
ing. She advanced towards him, saying, with a ma- 
jestic air and look of anger, " Sir, you are all powerful 
at this moment; but it is through the favor of the 
people, who soon break their idoJs in pieces. Your 
existence depends on your conduct. It is said that, 
you possess great abilities. You must be aware that 
neither the King nor myself can endure all these inno- 
vations on the constitution. This I tell you frankly : 
choose your own side." Dumouriez replied to this, 
that he was deeply pained by the secret which her 
majesty had just imparted to him, but that he would 
not betray it. "I stand between the King and the 
nation," said he, " and I belong to my country. Per- 
mit me to represent to you that the welfare of the 
King, your own, and that of your children, is linked 
with the constitution, as well as the re-establishment 
of the legitimate authority. I should do you dis-ser- 
vice, if I were to hold any other language. You and 
the King are both surrounded by persons who are 
sacrificing you to their private interest. The consti- 
tution, when once it shall be in vigor, so far from 
bringing misery upon the King, will constitute his 
happiness and glory. It is absolutely necessary 
that he should concur in establishing it solidly and 
speedily." 
Shocked at this contradiction of her opinions, the 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 97 

due^n, raising her voice, angrily exclaimed, "That 
will not last. Take care of yourself." 

Dumouriez rejoined, that his life had been crossed 
by many perils, and, in accepting the ministry, he 
was thoroughly sensible that responsibihty was not 
the greatest of his clangers. 

"Nothing more," she exclaimed, with deep chagrin, 
"is wanting, but to calumniate me. You seem to 
think me capable of causing you to be murdered," 
and tears trickled from her eyes. 

"God preserve me," said Dumouriez, himself agi- 
tated, "from doing you so cruel an injury! Ihe 
character of your majesty is great and noble ; you have 
given heroic proofs of it, which I have admired, and 
which have attached me to you." She now became 
more calm, and moved nearer to him. " Believe me," 
he continued, " I have no interest in deceiving you. I 
abhor anarchy and crime as much as you do. This is 
not a transient popular movement, as you seem to 
think. It is an almost unanimous insurrection of a 
mighty nation against inveterate abuses. Great fac- 
tions fan this flame. In all of them there are villains 
and madmen. In the revolution 1 keep only in view 
the King and the entire nation ; all that tends to part 
them leads to their mutual ruin ; I strive as much as 
possible to unite them ; it is for you to assist me. If I 
am an obstacle, I will at once send my resignation to 
the King, and hide myself in some corner, to mourn 
over the fate of my country and over yours." 

The concluding part of this conversation entirely 
restored the confidence of the Glueen. She and Du- 
mouriez reviewed together the different factions ; he 
pointed out to her the blunders and crimes of all ; he 
proved to her that she was betrayed by those about 
her, and repeated the language held by persons in her 
most intimate confidence. She appeared, in the end, 
to be convinced, and dismissed him with a- serene and 
affable regard. She was sincere, says Dumouriez, but 
those around her, and the horrible excesses of the pa- 
pers written by Marat and the Jacobins, soon drove 



98 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

her back to her baneful resolutions. On another oc- 
casion she said to Dumouriez, in the presence of the 
King, " You see me sad. I dare liot approach the 
windows which overlook the garden. Yesterday- 
evening, I went to the window towards the courl^ just 
to take'a little air ; a gunner of the guards addressed 
me in terms of vulgar abuse, adding that he would 
like to see my head on the point of his bayonet. In 
this garden you see on one side a man mounted on a 
chair, reading aloud the most abominable calumnies 
against me ; on the other, a military man, or an abbe, 
dragged through one of the basins, overwhelmed with 
abuse and beaten ; whilst others are playing at ball 
or quietly walking about. What an abode ! What a 
people !" Thus, by a kind of fatality, the supposed in- 
tentions of the palace excited the distrust and fury of 
the people, and the uproar of the people increased the 
anxiety and imprudence of the palace.* 

An event occupied the attention of the Assembly 
about this time. It was the massacre at Avignon, 
which city, (at least the majority of its population,) had 
petitioned to be united with France, and had been the 
theatre of bloody wars ever since. Whilst the Consti- 
tuent Assembly were debating upon the matter, two 
parties, one favorable, the other opposed, to the incor- 
poration, divided the city.f M. Jouve Jourdan, the 
Man with the Beard, had fled thither after his partici- 
pation in the insurrection at Versailles, set himself up 
as a dealer in madder, formed a club similar to those 
in Paris, and infused into the lower orders a similar 
insurrectionary spirit. " For some twenty-five months 
the confusion has lasted. Say three months of arguing ; 
then seven of raging ; then finally some fifteen months 
now of fighting, and even of hanging. For already in 
February, 1790, the Papal aristocrats had set up four 
gibbets, for a sign ; but the people rose in June, in re- 
tributive frenzy, and, forcing the public hangman to 

* Dumouriez; Thiers; Alison, etc. 

t Avignon was under the Papal government. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 99 

act, hanged four aristocrats." * Then followed emi- 
gration, dismissal of the papal consul, flight, victory, 
and the various turns of civil war ; petitions to the 
National Assembly of France ; "congresses of town- 
ships, threescore and odd voting for a reunion with 
France, and twelve voting against it ; township against 
township, town against town." Carpentras, long 
jealous of Avignon, turned out in open war with it, 
and Jourdan, with a rabble army of several thousands, 
besieged the rival town for two months. " So Jourdan 
shut up his madder shop, and has risen, for he was the 
man to do it. The tile-beard of Jourdan is shaven off; 
his fat visage has got coppered and studded with car- 
buncles ; the Silenus trunk is swollen with drink and 
high living. He wears blue National uniform with 
epaulettes, ' an enormous sabre, two horse-pistols 
crossed in his belt, and other two smaller sticking from 
his pockets ;' and styles himself general. Gibbets we 
see rise on the one side and the other, and wretched 
carcasses swinging there a dozen in a row. The fruit- 
ful seed-fields lie unreaped, the vineyards trampled 
down. Havoc and anarchy everywhere." f 

On the 14th of September, 1791, the Assembly, 
having sent commissioners to Avignon and heard their 
report, decreed that Avignon and the Comtat were 
Incorporated with France, and that the Pope should be 
allowed a reasonable indemnity. But the terrible 
feelings between the Aristocrats and Patriots were 
not allayed. Placards, denouncing the annexation, 
were posted up ; and the statue of the Virgin, in the 
Cordeliers' church, was said to have shed tears and 
grown red. This last was an appeal to the supersti- 
tious, who crowded to the church on the morning of 
Sunday, October 16th. L'Escuyer, a leader among the 
patriots, repaired to the church, in company with two 
others, " to meet the Papists there in a body, and to 
admonish them." He entered the church, addressed 
the crowd, but was answered with shrieks and 

♦Carlyle. t Carlyle. 



100 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

menaces. He was finally beaten, trampled and stabbed, 
and left dead before the altar of the church. His two 
friends raised the alarm. Jourdan and his force, 
promptly closed the town-gates, the walls were guarded 
so as to render escape impossible, and then repaired to 
the church, which they found vacant — silent — the 
corpse of L'Escuyer, swimming in blood, at the foot 
of the altar. They raised the body, stretched it upon 
a bier, circled the ghastly head with laurel, and bore 
it through the streets with lamentation and cries of 
vengeance. Sixty obnoxious families were now sought 
out, dragged from their homes, and thrown into the 
Glaciere, or Ice-tower ; where, during the obscurity 
of the night, vengeance was wreaked upon them with 
impunity. One young man put fourteen to death with 
his own hands, and only desisted from excess of 
fatigue; twelve women perished, after having under- 
gone tortures the most revolting and worse than death 
itself Lawless men did their worst — murder, pillage, 
and women violated in the most brutal manner. When 
vengeance tired, the remains of the victims were torn 
and mutilated, and heaped up in a ditch, or thrown 
into the Rhone.* In one ditch lay a hundred and 
thirty corpses — men, women, and even children ; for 
the trembling mother, hastily seized, could not leave 
her infant. " For three days there is mournful lifting 
out, and recognition ; amid a passionate Southern 
people, now kneeling in prayer, now storming in wild 
pity and rage ; lastly, there is a solemn sepulture, with 
muffled drums, religious requiem, and all the people's 
wail and tears. Their massacred bodies rest now in 
holy ground ; buried in one grave."f 

The situation of France was daily becoming more 

* Lacretelle. 

t Carlyle. — " The recital of these atrocities excited the utmost 
commisseration in the Assembly. Cries of indignation arose on all 
sides; the president fainted after reading the letter which communi- 
cated its details. But this, like almost all the other crimes of the 
popular party during the Revolution, remained unpunished." — 
Alison. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 101 

dangerous, and she had everything to fear from the 
unfriendly disposition of Europe. Austria was as- 
sembling troops, laying out camps, and appointing 
generals. There remained no doubt with regard to 
her projects, an don the 20th of April, 1792, the Assembly 
declared war between France and the king of Hung- 
ary and Bohemia. All France received the declara- 
tion with joy ; it communicated a new excitement to 
the people,- already so agitated. The districts, the 
municipalities, and popular societies sent addresses ; 
men were enlisted, voluntary contributions were 
poured into the treasury, and the whole nation spon- 
taneously rose up in arms to await the onset of Europe, 
or to invade her. War declared, hostilities were 
actively commenced, and proved disastrous to the 
French at the outset. They fled in panic, and massa- 
cred Dillon, their commander. The populace of Paris, 
cried out that they were betrayed. Murmurs against 
the court were renewed. The Glueen was irritated by 
the revival of popular feeling against her. Dumouriez 
broke with the Girondists, and influenced the King to 
resist their counsels. The spirits of the loyalists were 
raised, and Louis was induced once more to listen to 
them. The Parisians were proportionally awakened 
and excited ; and thus were sown afresh the seeds of 
insurrection. Dumouriez, on accepting the ministry 
of foreign affairs, had demanded six millions for secret 
services, and insisted that he should not be called upon 
to account for the expenditure of that sum. This was 
strenuously opposed by one party, but, through the 
influence of the Girondists, his demand proved trium- 
phant, and the six millions were granted. It was pre- 
sently understood that he had expended one hundred 
thousand francs upon his pleasures ; and Roland, 
around whom rallied the Gironde, was, with all his 
friends, highly indignant at the circumstance. The 
ministers dined with one another by turns, for the 
purpose of deliberating on public affairs. When they 
met at the house of Roland, it was in the presence of 



102 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

his wife and all his friends ; and we -may say that the 
council was then held by the Gironde itself* 

It was at such a meeting that remonstrances were 
made to Dumouriez on the nature of his secret ex- 
penses. At first he replied with gayety and good- 
humor, afterwards lost his temper, and came to an 
open rupture with Roland and the Girondins. He 
ceased to attend these accustomed parties, and gave as 
his reason that he would not talk of public affairs 
before a woman or in the presence of Roland's friends. 
The newspapers attacked him ; Marat, in his " Friend 
of the People," was particularly severe upon him. 
He confronted the storm, and caused severe measures 
to be taken against some of the journalists. Marat 
was accused of exciting the people to sedition, but es- 
caped as heretofore, f His pen continued to pour forth 
tirades against the royal family, particularly the 
Queen, and against the priests and the aristocrats. 
Agitation increased. The priests had become extreme- 
ly odious to the populace in consequence of their plot- 
tings in favour of the court. Reports of their factious 
conduct were continually pouring in, and in the south- 
eren provinces, by abusing the secrecy of the confes- 
sional to kindle fanaticism,"they were the means of crea- 

* Thiers. " And so the fair Roland removes from her upper floor 
m the Rue St. Jacques, to the sumptuous saloons once occupied by 
Madame Necker. Nay, still earlier, it was Calonne that did all this 
gilding ; it was he who ground these lustres, Venitian mirrors ; who 
polished this inlaying, this veneering and or-moulu. The fair 
Roland, equal to either fortune, has her public dinner on Fridays, the 
ministers all there in a body. She withdraws to her desk, (the cloth 
once removed) and seems busy writing ; nevertheless loses no word. 
Envious men insinuate that the wife of Roland is minister, and not 
the husband.." Carlyle. 

t In 1790, La Fayette, with his National Guards, laid siege to 
Marat's house, for the purpose of seizing him and bringing him be- 
fore the tribunals of justice ; but he found an asylum in the house 
of an actress, who was induced by her husband to admit him. In 
the different searches made after him, the cellars of his partisans, 
and the vaults of the Cordeliers' church, successively gave him 
shelter, and thence he continued to send forth his journal. Biogra- 
pfiie Moderne. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 103 

ting a general disturbance.* In this crisis a decree of 
banishment from the kingdom was pronounced upon 
them by the Assembly. Distrust of the King also in- 
creased, for it was generally believed that he was secret- 
ly treating with the allied courts, whose armies were 
now surrounding France, for his deliverance from the 
capital. The Assembly declared its sittings permanent, 
and directed a camp of twenty-thousand men to be 
formed near the capital, to secure its safety. The 
guard around the King was re-modelled ; the officers 
were chosen in part from a different class than had 
hitherto commanded, and companies of pikemen were 
introduced from the faubourgs to neutralize the roy- 
alty of their fellow-soldiers. The constitutional party 
made zealous efforts against these innovations ; but 
in vain, and the approach of danger from the allied 
armies, and the popular voice, threw the whole weight 
of goverment into the hands of the Jacobins.f 

The decf'ee for the banishment of such priests 
as would not take an oath to support the constitu- 
tion, as well as that for the formation of the camp 
of twenty-thousand men, still awaited the signature 
of the King to become a law. Dumouriez urged the 
King to adopt both, stating that if he refused to 
convoke twenty thousand men regularly chosen, 
forty thousand would spontaneously rise and make 
themselves masters of the capital ; and that he ought 
to sanction the decree against the clergy, because 
they were culpable, and exile would withdraw them 
from the fury of their enemies. Still Louis hesitated, 
and said he would consider upon it. Beset by false 
friends, whose advice he listened to, he refused to 
sanction the two decrees, and Roland was dismissed 
from the ministry. Dumouriez, who was ambitious, 
took advantage of these events, and procured for him- 
self the office" of minister of war. He repaired to the 
Assembly, with ' his new title, to read a report upon 
the state of the army, of the faults of the administra- 

• Thiers. tMignet 

10 



104 THE REIGN OP TERROR. ' 

tion, and of the Assembly. The moment he appeared, 
he was assailed by violent hootings from the Jacobins ; 
and a refusal to listen to him was manifested on all 
sides. He cooly desired to be heard, and at length 
obtained silence. His remonstrance irritated some of 
the deputies. " Do you hear him ^" exclaimed Guadet 
— " he is lecturing us." — " And why not T" coldly an- 
swered Dumouriez. He finished reading his report, 
and was by turns hooted and applauded. As soon as 
he had done, he folded up the paper, as if he intended 
taking it with him. " He is running away," cried a 
member. — "No," he rejoined; and boldly laying his 
memorial on the desk again, he calmly signed it, and 
walked through the assembly with unshaken compo- 
sure. This display of firmness cheered the King, who 
expressed to Dumouriez his satisfaction. The latter, 
however, continued to urge Louis to sanction the two 
decrees, and as this was withheld by the monarch, he 
asked his dismissal, which was granted;* but not 
without marks of sensibility on the King's part and his 
own. And having thus saved a part of his credit with 
the Assembly, which respected his talents, and desired 
to use them against the invaders, he departed from 
Paris to the frontiers, to lead the van among the French 
victors.! 

The determination of Louis not to adopt the two 
decrees, daily augmented the indignation of the popu- 
lace against the court, and the King, harassed with this 
question, and disconcerted at the impossibility of form- 
ing an efficient administration, sunk about this time 
into a despondency that amounted even to physical 
debility. " He was for ten days together," says Ma- 
dame Campan, one of the Q,ueen's attendants at this 
period, and who has left us some very interesting 
anecdotal information in regard to the royal family, in 
her memoirs — " He was for ten days together without 
uttering a word, even in the midst of his family, ex- 
cepting at the game of backgammon, which he was in 

* Thiers. t Scott 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 105 

the habit of playing with his sister, Madame Elizabeth, 
after dinner, and then he merely pronounced the 
words that are used in that game. The dueen roused 
him from this state, so ruinous in a crisis when every 
moment demanded action, by casting herself upon her 
knees before him, and sometimes by employing images 
calculated to terrify him, and at others, by expressions 
of her affection for him. She also urged the claims 
which he owed to his family ; and she even went so 
far as to say that if they must perish, they ought to do 
so with honor, and not wait to be both stifled on the 
floor of their own apartment." 

The Jacobins were actively in motion, their influ- 
ence had grown enormous; their affiliated societies 
were daily spreading hatred to the court throughout 
France, and the debates of the parent club shook the 
kingdom from one end to the other. They maintained 
the enthusiasm of the people by revolutionary fetes 
and increased their efficiency by arming them with 
pikes. " The word liberty is never named now except 
in conjunction with another; Liberty and Equality. 
Note too how the Jacobin brethren are mounting new 
symbolical headgear ; the woollen cap, better known 
as the bonnet roug-e, the color being red." * The 20th 
of June was approaching, and it had been resolved to 
celebrate that day, (the anniversary of the oath taken 
by the Assembly in the Tennis-court, June 20th, 1789.) 
by a procession and fete; a tree of liberty was to be 
planted, and petitions presented both to the Assembly 
and to the King. Early on the morning of the 20th, a 
large tree, of the poplar kind, stood tied to a cart in 
the suburb St. Antoine, surrounded by a crowd of 
men, women and children, the men armed with pikes, 
and many of the women ; the rabble of the other su- 
burbs were gathering ; the armed, and the unarmed 
curious, all mingling, and concentrating around this 
horizontal tree of liberty. The municipal authorities 
came upon the ground and protested against the as- 

* Carlyle. 



106 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

sembling of such an armed body, but Petion, the 
mayor, did not interfere, and the crowd continued to 
increase. " They seemed, notwithstanding their great 
numbers, to act under authority, and amid their cries, 
their songs, their dances, and the wild intermixture of 
grotesque and fearful revel, appeared to move by com- 
mand, and to act with a unanimity that gave the effect 
of order to that which was in itself confusion." * They 
were divided into bodies, and had their leaders. Stand- 
ards were displayed, carefully selected to express the 
character and purpose of the wretches who were as- 
sembled under them, and tri-color ribands streamed 
aloft from pike-heads. 

Towards noon this great mass marched in proces- 
sion, taking its direction westward, " led by tall San- 
terre in blue uniform, by tall St. Huruge, in white hat ;" 
it was joined on its route by various sections of the 
mob of the capital, and at the quai St. Bernard the 
municipal officers again met and harangued it, and 
pleaded earnestly for it to disperse ; but in vain ; it 
continued on its way, dragging the liberty-tree and 
trailing two cannons. The Assembly had just met in 
expectation of some great event. The middling classes 
of the citizens were terrified, afraid of a general pil- 
lage, and concentrated themselves. A strong force of 
armed citizens guarded all the avenues to the Palais- 
Royal, in order to protect the wealth of the shops 
there, excluding the ingress of the rabble, whose cu- 
pidity it was feared might be too strongly tempted by 
the display of riches in the windows. The guard 
around the Tuilleries was doubled by order of the mu- 
nicipal authorities. It is obvious, says M. Thiers, that 
the real intention of this mass movement was to strike 
terror into the palace by the sight of forty thousand 
pikes. To terrify the King, we infer, in regard to the 
two decrees that the Jacobins wished to become a 
law, for he had now vetoed both. At midnight previ- 
ous, Petion, whether he conceived that the movement 

* Scott 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 107 

was irresistible, or that he ought to favour it, wrote to 

the directory of the mihtary department, soHciting it 
to authorize the assemblage on the following day by 
permiting the National guard to receive the citizens 
of the suburbs into its ranks. This expedient fully ac- 
complished the views of those who, without wishing for 
any disturbance, were nevertheless desirous of over- 
awing the King; and everything proves, says M. 
Thiers, that such were in fact the views of Petion and 
the popular chiefs. 

The tumult became more and more violent. A letter 
was brought into the Assembly from Santerre. It was 
read amidst applause from the Jacobins. It purported 
"that the inhabitants of the faubourg St. Antoine were 
celebrating the 20th of June ; that they were calumni- 
ated, and begged to be admitted to the bar of the As- 
sembly, in order that they might confound their slan- 
derers, and prove that they were still the men of the 
14th of July." The president of the Assembly, after a 
reply in which he promised the petitioners the vigi- 
lance of the representatives of the people, and recom- 
mended obedience to the laws, granted them, in the 
name of the Assembly, to file before it. The doors 
were then thrown open, and the mob, amounting at 
that moment to at least thirty thousand persons, passed 
through the hall. It is easy to conceive what the 
imagination of the populace, abandoned to itself, is 
capable of producing. Enormous tablets, upon which 
were inscribed " Rights of Man," headed the proces- 
sion. Around these tablets danced women and child- 
ren, bearing olive-branches and pikes, that is to say, 
peace or war, at the option of the enemy. They sang 
in chorus the famous Ca Ira. Then came the porters 
of the markets, the working-men of all classes, with 
wretched muskets, swords, and sharp pieces of iron 
fastened to the end of thick bludgeons. Santerre and 
the Marquis de St. Huruges, marched with drawn 
swords. Battalions of the National guard followed in 
good order, to prevent tumult by their presence. 
After them came women and more armed men. 

10* 



108 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

Waving flags were inscribed with " The Constitution 
or Death." Ragged breeches were held up in the air, 
with shouts of Vivent les Sa7is-culottes! Lastly, an 
atrocious sign was displayed to add ferocity to the 
whimsicality of the spectacle. On the point of a pike 
was borne a calf's heart, inscribed " Heart of an aris- 
tocrat."* Grief and indignation burst forth at this 
sight. The horrid emblem instantly disappeared, but 
was again exhibited at the gates of the Tuilleries. The 
applause of the tribunes, the shouts of the people pass- 
ing through the hall, the civic songs, the confused up- 
roar, and silence of the anxious Assembly, composed 
an extraordinary scene, and at the same time an 
afflicting one to the very deputies who viewed the 
military as an auxihary. This scene lasted three 
hours. At length Santerre again came forward to ex- 
press to the Assembly the thanks of the people, and 
presented it with a flag in token of gratitude and at- 
tachment. The mob, at this moment, attempted to get 
into the garden of the Tuilleries, the gates of which 
were closed. Numerous detachments of the National 
guard surrounded the palace, presenting an imposing 
front. By order of the King, the garden-gate was 
opened. The people instantly poured in, and filed off 
under the windows of the palace and before the ranks 
of the National guard, shouting "Down with the veto! 
the Sans-culottes forever !" Meanwhile some persons, 
speaking of the King, said, " Why does he not show 
himself] we mean to do him no harm, etc." All the 
avenues became crowded, and a great mass of persons 
collected before the royal gate, demanding to be ad- 
mitted. They were refused, and some of the muni- 
cipal officers addressed them with such success that 
they were apparently retiring. It is asserted that at 

* "A bull's heart transfixed with iron, bearing this epigraph, 
* Ccsur d' Aristocrate, Aristocrat's heart ;' and, more striking still, 
properly the standard of the host, a pair of old black breeches (silk, 
they say,) extended on a cross staff high overhead, with these memo- 
rable words, ' Tremblez tyrans, voila les Sans-culottes." — Carlyle, 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 109 

this moment, Santerre, coming from the Asesmbly, 
where he had stayed till the last moment to present the 
flag, whetted the almost blunted purpose of the people, 
and caused the cannon to be drawn up to the gate.* 

It was nearly four o'clock. Two municipal officers 
all at once ordered the gate to be opened. The troops 
were then paralyzed. The people rushed headlong 
into the court, and thence into the vestibule of the 
palace, taking possession of all the staircases, and by 
main force dragged one of the cannons up to the first 
floor. At the same instant, the mob commenced an 
attack with bludgeons and hatchets upon the doors 
which were closed against them. Cries of " Down 
with the veto ! Let the King show himself!" were 
mingled with blows against the door. Oflncers of the 
National Guard, and others, surrounded Louis, im- 
ploring him to show himself, and vowing to die by his 
side. Without hesitation he then ordered the door to 
be opened. At that instant, a panel, driven in by a 
violent blow, fell at his feet. The door was at length 
opened, and a forest of pikes and bayonets appeared. 
" Here I am !" said the King, showing himself to the 
furious rabble. Those who surrounded him kept close 
to him, and formed a rampart of their bodies. " Pay 
respect to your King," they exclaimed. Several voices 
from the crowd announced a petition, and desired that 
it might be read. Those about the monarch prevailed 
upon him to retire to a more spacious room to hear 
this petition. The people, pleased to see their desire 
complied with, followed the prince ; his attendants had 
the good sense to place him in the embrasure of a 
window, and to erect in front of him a sort of barricade 
with tables and other furniture, stationing themselves 
as his defenders. Amidst uproar and shouts, continued 
to be heard the cries of " No veto ! no priests ! no 
aristocrats ! the camp near Paris !" Legendre, the 
butcher, stepped up, and, in popular language, de- 
manded the sanction of the decrees. " This is neither 

* Shoberl's translation of Thiers. 



110 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the place nor the moment," replied the King, with 
firmness ;"I will do all the Constitution requires." And 
now, seated on a chair, which was elevated on a table, 
and surrounded by the few faithful national guards, 
Louis preserved a serene and undaunted countenance 
in the midst of the dangers which every instant threat- 
ened his life. "Vive la nation !" shouted many voices. 
" Yes," said Louis, " Vive la nation ! I am its best 
friend." " Well, prove it then," said one of the crowd, 
poking forward to him a bojinet I'ouge, (red cap,) at the 
point of a pike. Louis put the cap on his head, and 
the applause was general, both from the throng inside 
and outside of the palace.* His situation at the win- 
dow enabled him to be seen by both. He thought it 
unnecessary, says Mignet, to refuse a token unimpor- 
tant to him, but which, in the eye of the multitude, 
was the signal of liberty. A refusal might have been 
dangerous, says Thiers, and certainly, in his situation, 
dignity did not consist in throwing away life by 
rejecting this sign, but in doing as he did, in bearing 
with firmness the assault of the multitude. His sister, 
Madame Elizabeth, who was fondly attached to her 
brother, and who was the only one of the royal family 
who had succeeded in getting to him, now followed 
him from window to window, to share his danger, as 
he showed himself with the red cap. The multitude 
at first mistook her for the Q.ueen. Shouts of "There's 
the Austrian," were raised in an alarming manner. 
The national grenadiers, surrounding her, endeavored 
to set the people right. " Leave them in their error," 
said she, " and save the Q,ueen." 

Marie Antoinette, with her son and daughter, had 
not been able to join her husband. At the onset of 
the multitude, she fled from the lower apartments, 
hurried to the council-chamber, and, though anxious 
to join him, and earnestly begging to be led to the 
room where he was, it was impossible in consequence 
of the density of the crowd which filled the palace. 

* Thiers; Scott; Alison, etc. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. Ill 

Standing in the council-chamber, under the protection 
of some grenadiers, she watched the people file off; 
her heart full of horror, her eyes swimming with tears. 
Her daughter was weeping by her ; her young son, 
frightened at first, soon recovered his cheerfulness, 
smiling in the happy ignorance of his age. A red cap 
had been handed to him, and the Q,ueen had placed it 
on his head. Santerre, the brewer, recommended 
respect to the throng, and spoke cheeringly to the 
Q,ueen. Seeing the dauphin encumbered with the 
cap, '• The boy is stifling" said he, and relieved him 
by taking it off.* 

The Assembly, learning the danger of the King and 
his family, sent several successive deputations to the 
palace to serve as a safeguard. These deputies, 
hoisted on the shoulders of the grenadiers, alternately 
addressed the crowd, entreating them to disperse. At 
last, Petion, the mayor, arrived, and harangued the 
populace, exhorting them to retire without tumult. 
" Fear nothing, sire," said he to Louis XVI. ; " you are 
in the midst of your people." Louis, taking the hand 
of a grenadier, placed it upon his heart, saying, " Feel ! 
does it betray fear] does it beat quicker than usual 1" 
Petion, by his exhortations, and with the assistance of 
Santerre, finally prevailed upon the multitude to retire 
in an orderly manner, and the palace was cleared by 
seven in the evening. 

As soon as the mob had left, the King was sur- 
rounded by his family, all in tears, yet congratulating 
each other that they had escaped with their Uves. 
Overcome by the scene, Louis forgot that he had still 
the red cap on his head. He now perceived it, and 
flung it from him with indignation. At this moment 
more deputies arrived from the Assembly to learn the 
state of the palace. Marie Antoinette walked through 
the apartments with them, and pointed out the shat- 
tered doors and broken furniture, expressing her keen 
vexation at such outrages. Those apartments of royal 

* Thiers. 



112 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

magnificence, so long the pride of France, had been 
laid open to the multitude, like those of Troy to her 
invaders. The august palace of the proud house of 
Bourbon had thus been exposed to the rude gaze, and 
vulgar tread, of a brutal and ferocious rabble. Who 
dared hav^e prophesied such an event to the royal 
founders of that stately pile — to the chivalrous Henry 
of Navarre, or the magnificent Louis XIV.* 

In the memoirs of Bourrienne, we find that Napo- 
leon was a spectator of the events of this day. " While 
we were leading a somewhat idle life," says Bour- 
rienne, " the 20th of June arrived. We met, (Bour- 
rienne and Bonaparte were then daily together,) as 
usual, that morning, in the coflee-house in the Rue St. 
Honore. On leaving the cafe we perceived a mob 
approaching, which Bonaparte computed at five or six 
thousand men, all in rags, and armed with every sort 
of weapon, vociferating the grossest abuse, and pro- 
ceeding rapidly towards the Tuilleries. Bonaparte 
proposed to me that we should follow the rabble. We 
got before them, and went into the gardens, taking a 
station on the terrace overlooking the water. Fmm 
here we witnessed the disgraceful occurrences that 
ensued. I should fail in attempting to depict the sur- 
prise and indignation aroused within him. He could 
not comprehend such weakness and forbearance. But 
when the King showed himself, at one of the windows 
fronting the garden, with the red cap, Bonaparte could 
no longer restrain his indignation. * What madness !' 
he exclaimed. ' How could they allow these scoundrels 
to enter T They ought to have blown four or five hun- 
dred of them into the air with cannon ; the rest would 
then have taken to their heels.' " 

Towards evening of the next day, a similar scene 
was to be apprehended, from the gathering that took 
place, but it was disapproved of by the popular 
leaders, and Petion hastened to the palace to inform 
the King that order was restored. " That is not 

* Scott 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 113 

true," said Louis.—" Sire,"—" Be silent."—" It befits 
not," said Petion, " the magistrate of the people to be 
silent, when he does his duty and speaks truth." — 
" The tranquilhty of Paris rests on your head," said 
Louis. — " I know my duty ; I shall perform it," replied 
Petion. — "Enough; go and perform it; retire," was 
the ill-humoured dismissal of Louis, exasperated at 
the sight of Petion, whom he considered the originator 
of the scenes of the preceding day. 

Two proclamations were immediately issued ; one 
by the King, the other by the municipality; and it 
was rumored among the suburbs that the court was 
endeavouring to excite another insurrection among 
the people, that it might have occasion to sweep them 
away with artillery. Thus the palace supposed the 
existence of a plan for murder — the faubourgs that a 
plan existed for a massacre. Marat and the journal- 
ists kept alive the hostile feelings of the populace 
against the court, whilst the Jacobins, by their corres- 
pondence with the clubs throughout the provinces, 
infused the same spirit in almost every part ©f the 
kingdom. Crowds of the populace thronged the halls 
of the clubs, excited by the inflammatory speeches of 
Robespierre, Danton and others ; and crowded to the 
galleries of the Assembly, applauding the sentiments 
of the Girondists, who continued their attacks upon 
the court. Eight days after the 20th, La Fayette 
appeared unexpectedly at the bar of the Assembly. 
Having provided for the command of his army, he 
had hastened from the frontiers. He asked in his 
own name, and that of the army, the punishment of 
those who had figured in the disturbances of the 20th 
of June, and the destruction of the Jacobins. This 
demand excited various sensations among the mem- 
bers of the Assembly ; the right side applauded him, 
but the left rose against him, and the majority took 
no notice of his demand. He next presented himself 
at the palace, but was received coldly, the King and 
Queen both distrusting him. His hopes now turned 
towards the National Guard, which had been so long 



114 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

devoted to him ; and he trusted, with the aid of its 
members, to succeed in putting an end to the clubs, 
dispersing the Jacobins, restoring to Louis XVI. all 
the authority which the law had conferred on him, 
and giving strength to the constitution. But the 
influence of the general with the guards was gone. 
He ordered a review, but was received in silence by- 
all the battalions who had so lately worshipped his 
footsteps, and retired to his hotel, despairing of the 
constitutional cause. Determined, however, not to 
abandon his enterprise without further effort, he ap- 
pointed a rendezvous with a select body of grenadiers 
and chaussers, who were to meet in the evening at 
his house, and from thence to march against the 
clubs, and especially to close the sittings of the Jaco- 
bins, and wall up their doors. But when the hour of 
rendezvous came, only about thirty men appeared, 
and irresolution and uncertainty were painted in 
every countenance. He remained another day in 
Paris, amidst denunciations, threats, and hints of 
assassination, and at length departed, lamenting the 
uselessness of his self devotion and the fatal obstinacy 
of the court. The Jacobins were now violent against 
him, and burned his effigy in the garden of the Palais 
Royal. * 

Distrust between the court and the people con- 
tinued. Forty thousand Prussians, and as many 
Austrians, were approaching the frontiers. " The 
country is in danger," was the general cry. All the 
walls of Paris were covered with threatening placards; 
the public papers talked of nothing but the forfeiture 
of the crown and dethronement. In the Assembly, 
Verginaud, in a powerful discourse, portrayed the 
dangers which threatened. He quoted the article of 
the constitution which declared, " that if the King put 
himself at the head of an armed force against the 
nation, or did not oppose a similar enterprize attempt- 
ed in his name, he should be held to have abdicated 

* Thiers, Mignet, Prudhomme, Lacretelle, etc. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 115 

the throne." He continued, " O King! whose belief is 
doubtless, like that which the tyrant Ly-sander enter- 
tained, that truth is no better than a lie ; and that 
men are to be amused with oaths as children with 
toys ; you have merely feigned a regard to the laws, 
in order to preserve an authority which may enable 
you to break them or set them at defiance ; and 
feigned a love of the constitution, lest you should have 
been hurled from the throne ; do you suppose that we 
are any longer to be deceived by your hypocritical 
protestations 1 Was it to defend us that you opposed 
foreign armies with forces whose inferiority rendered 
defeat inevitable] Was it to defend us that you 
rejected every proposition for fortifying the interior 1 
Did the constitution leave you the choice of ministers 
for our happiness or for our ruin 1 Did it appoint 
you the head of our armies for our glory or our dis- 
grace ] Did it leave you, in short, the right of sanc- 
tioning the laws, did it leave you a civil list, and so 
many prerogatives, in order that you might constitu- 
tionally destroy the constitution of the empire 1 No ! 
You, whom tiie generosity of Frenchmen has been 
unable to move, sensible only to the love of despotism 
— you are no longer a part of that constitution you 
have violated, or of that people whom you have so 
basely betrayed!" A few days afterwards, Brissot 
expressed himself still more plainly. " The dangers 
which surround us," said he, " are the most extraor- 
dinary which has ever been known. Our country 
is in danger, not because it wants defenders, not 
because its soldiers are destitute of courage, not be- 
cause her frontiers are ill-fortified, not because her 
resources are scanty. No! But because her forces 
are secretly paralyzed ! And who has paralyzed 
them? A single individual ; the very man whom the 
constitution has declared its chief, and whom perfi- 
dious advisers have rendered its enemy. You are 
told to fear the kings of Hungary and Prussia — I tell 
you that the main strength of these sovereigns is in our 
own court, and that there you must strike to conquer 

11 



116 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

them. You have been told to take measures against 
the refractory priests throughout the realm — but I tell 
you to strike at the Tuilleries and you will reach at 
once all these priests. You have been told to attack 
all intriguers, all conspirators, and all factions — I tell 
you that all these will disappear, if vengeance reaches 
them through the Tuilleries, for that cabinet is the 
point where all their plots are concocted, and from 
whence all impulses proceed ! The nation is the 
puppet of this cabinet ! This is the secret of our 
situation and the source of our evils, and there is the 
point to which the remedy must be applied." * 

The Girondists in this manner prepared the As- 
sembly for thie question of deposing the King. In the 
meantime, Petion had been suspended from the office 
of mayor by the municipal authorities, on account of 
his conduct on the 20th of June, but the Assembly 
restored him to his functions, and he was now the 
object of popular idolatry. The Assembly had also 
solemnly declared the country in danger. All the 
civil authorities immediately took active measures ; 
all citizens capable of bearing arms were enrolled in 
the National Guard; every one was called on to 
declare the arms and ammunition he had in his pos- 
session ; pikes were given to those who could not 
carry guns ; battalions were formed in the public 
squares, in the midst of which banners w^ere planted, 
bearing the words, " Citizens, the country is in dan- 
ger." All these measures carried to its height the 
revolutionary frenzy. The 14th of July, the anniver- 
sary of the capture of the Bastille, was again at 
hand. Federates, or representatives, from the differ- 
ent departments of the kingdom, were daily arriving, 
and the mob of Paris were anxiously on the lookout for 
the reception of six hundred men from Marseilles, 
whom they expected to be present at the Foederation. 
These men assembled in the town-hall in Marseilles 
on the 5th of July, and started on their journey to 

* Mignet. . 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 117 

Paris, with the significant exclamation from the muni- 
cipality, " March ! strike down the tyrant !" They 
were all well armed, musket on shoulder, sabre on 
thigh. " They wend on their wild way, from the 
extremity of French land, through unknown cities, to 
an unknown destiny. A blackbrowed mass, full of 
grim fire, who wend there, in the hot sultry weather, 
Dusty of face, with frugal refreshment, they plod on- 
wards; unweariable, not to be turned aside."* They 
marched to the air since so celebrated under the name 
of the Marsellais Hymn ; " the sound of which will make 
the blood tingle in men's veins, and whole armies and 
assemblages will sing it, with eyes weeping and hearts 
burning." — " I never," says Madame de la Roche- 
jaquelian, " heard any thing more impressive and 
terrible than their songs." At Lyons, and at several 
other places, on their march, they were so rude in 
their conduct, that the inhabitants drove them out of 
the towns ; and it is said " these brigands consoled 
themselves for the ill-treatment they received in the 
towns by pillaging and oppressing the country pea- 
sants, and ravishing such defenceless women as fell in 
their way." f 

* Carlyle. t Playfair. 



118 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 



CHAPTER V. 

The third fete of the Foederation, July 14th, 1792. Alarm and agi- 
tation. Marat — his views at this crisis. Barbaroux — some ac- 
count of him. Robespierre — his retired manner of living — his 
vanity — his influence at the Jacobin club. Interview between 
him and Marat. Danton — his character, public and private. Ar- 
rival of the Marseillais in Paris, and riot between them and a com- 
pany of royalists in the Champs-Elysees. Proclamation of the 
Duke of Brunswick — general indignation in consequence of it. 
Petitions for the dethronement of Louis XVI. Insurrection of the 
10th of August. Santerre — Legendre — Robespierre — Danton — the 
Marsellais — Mandat — alarm at the Tuilleries — midnight — the 
alarm gun — the tocsin — drums beating — artillery rumbling through 
the streets — assassination of Mandat — confusion — terror — bell an- 
swering bell — all Paris awake and astir — the suburbs in motion — 
Santerre — Westermann — the Marseillais — at daybreak the palace 
of the Tuilleries is besieged. Louis XVI. — Marie Antoinette — 
the royal family seek protection in the Assembly — the palace at- 
tacked by the insurgents — the Swiss guards defend it, and disperse 
the assailants — the Marseillais renew the attack, fall in great num- 
bers, and at length break into the palace, the rabble pouring in 
after them — an indiscriminate massacre of the Swiss and the ser- 
vants of the palace follows — furniture destroyed and a general 
pillage. The Assembly dethrones Louis XVI, — he and his family 
confined in the Temple. Robespierre's demand for blood and 
vengeance. Advance of the Prussian army — terror of the Parisi- 
ans — Danton — the barriers closed, the Reign of Terror proclaimed 
— arrests of the aristocrats— massacre of the priests — Billaud-Va- 
rennes — the September massacres — the Princess Lamballe — her 
head carried on a pike to the windows of the Temple. 

The day of the third anniversary of the Foederation, the 
14th of July, 1792, arrived. Eighty-three tents, repre- 
senting the eighty-three departments of France, had 
been put up in the Champs-de-Mars ; beside each of 
these tents rose a poplar, from the top of which waved 
the tri-colored flag. A large tent was destined for the 
Assembly and the King, and another for the adminis- 
trative bodies of France. The altar was a truncated 
column, placed at the top of the seats which had re- 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 119 

mained since the first ceremony. On one side was a 
monument for those who had died, or who were des- 
tined to die, fighting the enemy on the fi'ontiers. On 
the other side was an immense tree, called the tree of 
feudalism, rising from the centre of a vast pile, and 
bearing on its branches blue ribands, crowns, tiaras, 
cardinals'-hats, St. Peter's keys, ermine mantles, titles 
of nobility, escutcheons, etc., which the King was to 
be invited to set fire to. The oath was to be taken at 
noon. The King displayed a calm dignity. The 
Q,ueen strove to conquer a grief that was but too visi- 
ble; "her eyes were swollen with tears," says Ma- 
dame de Stael; "and the splendor of her dress, and 
dignity of her deportment, formed a striking contrast 
with the train that surrounded her." The King's 
sister, and his children, were around him. At length 
the procession arrived at the Champs-de-Mars, which 
until then .had been comparatively empty, but now 
the multitude rushed tumultuously into it ; and beneath 
the balcony where the King was placed, a confused 
mob of women, children, and drunken men, passed, 
shouting " Petion forever ! Petion or death !" * and 
bearing on their hats the words which they had in 
their mouths. Louis XVI. descended from the balcony, 
and, amidst a square of troops, moved on with the pro- 
cession to the altar of the country. Innumerable 
voices reproached him with his perfidious flight to 
Varennes. It was with difficulty the soldiers kept back 
the intrusion, and they were wholly unable to prevent 
the reproaches and maledictions that were uttered 
around him. The concourse was so dense that they 
could move but slowly. "The figure made by the 
King during this pageant formed a striking and melan- 
choly parallel with his actual condition in the state. 
With hair powdered and dressed, with clothes embroi- 
dered in the ancient court fashion, surrounded and 
crowded unceremoniously by men of the lowest rank, 

* " His name was inscribed on a thousand banners ; on all sides 
the cry was heard " Petion or death !" — Alison. 
11* 



120 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

and in the most wretched garb, he seemed belonging 
to a former age, but which in the present had lost its 
fashion and value."* After great exertions on the part 
of the troops, who had much difficulty in opening a 
passage through the crowd, Louis XVI. reached the 
altar. " When he mounted the steps of the altar, he 
seemed a sacred victim, offering himself as a volun- 
tary sacrifice " remarks De Stael. In dread of assas- 
sination, he wore, says Madame Campan, a quilted 
and ballet proof cuirass under his waistcoat. The 
Queen, stationed on the balcony, watched the scene 
through a glass. The confusion seemed to increase 
about the altar, and the King to descend a step. The 
Queen, alarmed for her husband's safety, uttered a 
shriek, filling all around her with alarm. The cere- 
mony, however, passed off without accident. As soon 
as the oath was taken, the crowd hastened to the tree 
of feudalism. They were for hurrying the King along 
with them, that he might set fire to it ; but he declined, 
with the pertinent remark that there was no longer any 
such thing as feudalism. Noon had been the hour ap- 
pointed, but it was five o'clock before the oath was 
taken. Louis, with his family, returned to the Tuille- 
ries, glad at having escaped dangers which he con- 
ceived to be great, but dejected in heart at those which 
he beheld approaching. The tree of feudalism stood 
"unburnt till certain patriot deputies, called by the 
people, set a torch to it, by way of voluntary after- 
piece." 

The tidings which daily reached the capital from the 
frontiers increased the alarm and agitation. All 
France was in motion, and men were repairing to 
Paris, invited by the Jacobin leaders. They daily ar- 
rived, and were composed of the most violent spirits 
in the clubs throughout the kingdom. They were 
termed foederates, ostensibl)'- coming to Paris to assist 
at the Fcederation, but only two thousand were pre- 
sent on that day. Those that now came in were al- 

* Scott. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 121 

lowed thirty sous a day by the Assembly, under the 
pretext that their presence was necessary to defend 
the capital. They daily attended the sessions of the 
Assembly, and soon gave law to that body by their 
shouts of disapprobation or applause ; and were ready 
for insurrection at the first signal — to which effect 
they even made a declaration in an address to the As- 
sembly.* The arrival of theMarseillais was anxiously 
expected. There were daily agitations in the streets. 
The dethronement of Louis XVL, and the establish- 
ment of a republic, was the general topic of conversa- 
tion. Marat, editor of ' L'Ami du Peuple,' now emerged 
from the hiding-places in which he had dwelt, and be- 
came an object of popularity in the capital. His influ- 
ence had hitherto been principally confined to the su- 
burbs. The friends of the court, and the moderate 
party, regarded him with horror and contempt ; but 
he had learned to despise those who despised him. 
Hitherto the law had been continually aimed at him, 
but he had escaped by concealing himself in cellars; . 
for three years he had lived in this subterraneous exis- 
tence, skulking from one place of concealment to ano- 
ther.f He contined to diffuse in his journal the doc- 
trines with which he was imbued. All polished 

* Thiers. 

t Marat was bom at Neufchatel in 1744. He studied medicine, 
lived in indigence, and was at one time veterinary surgeon to the 
Count D'Artois. In 1774 he resided at Edinburgh, where he taught 
the French language, and published in English a volume entided the 
" Chains of Slavery." He wore, says Madame Roland, boots, but 
no stockings, a pair of old leather breeches, a white silk vest, a dirty 
shirt, the bosom of which was open and showed his yellow skin. 
Long and dirty nails, skinny fingers, and a hideous face, suited ex- 
actly his whimsical dress. — " There can be little doubt that Marat 
regarded himself as the apostle of liberty, and the more undeniably 
wrong he was, the more infallible he thought himself. Others had 
more delight in the actual spilling of blood ; no one else had the 
same disinterested and dauntless confidence in his theory. He might 
be placed at the head of a class that exists at all times, but only 
breaks out in times of violence and revolution ; who form crime into 
a code, and proclaim conclusions that make the hair of others 
stand on end." — HazlitU 



122 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

manners were, according to his notions, but vices 
hostile to republican equality, and, in his ardent hatred 
for the obstacles, he saw but one means of safety — 
extermination. He proposed a dictator, not for the 
purpose of conferring on him the despotism of one^ 
but of imposing on him the terrible task of purifying 
society. This dictator was to have a cannon-ball at- 
tached to his leg, that he might always be in the 
power of the people. He was to have but one faculty 
left him, that of pointing out victims and ordering 
death as their only chastisement. Marat knew no 
other penalty, because he was not for punishing, but 
for suppressing the obstacle. It was necessary, he as- 
serted, to strike off several hundred thousand heads, 
and to destroy all the aristocrats, who rendered liberty 
impossible. " The French are but paltry revolution- 
tionists," he said to Barbaroux. " Give me two hund- 
red Neapolitans, armed with daggers, and on the left 
arm a muff for a buckler ; with these I will traverse 
France, and complete the revolution." He also made 
an exact calculation, showing in what manner 260,000 
men might be put to death in one day. In this inter- 
view with Barbaroux, he further proposed, that, in 
order to mark the aristocrats, the Assembly should 
order them to wear a white riband, and that it should 
be lawful to kill them when three were found together. 
Under the name of aristocrats, he included the royal- 
ists and the Girondins; and the difficulty of distin- 
guishing and recognizing them being suggested by 
Barbaroux, he declared that it was impossible to mis- 
take, that it was only necessary to fall upon those who 
had carriages, servants, silk-clothes, and who were 
coming out of the theatres. " All such," said he, " are 
assuredly aristocrats." Barbaroux left him, horror- 
struck.* 

* Charles Barbaroux, bom at Marseilles. He embraced the cause 
of the revolution with uncommon ardour, and repaired to Paris in 
1792. He was called Antinous on account of his extraordinary 
beauty. Marseilles, an opulent city, with a population both numer- 
ous and democratic, had sent him aa a deputy to the Assembly. It 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 123 

Robespierre, at this period, divided his time between 
the sittings of the Jacobin Club and a studious retire- 
ment. In an elegant cabinet, in the house of the 
cabinet-maker, where his image was repeated in all 
possible ways, in painting, in engraving, and in sculp- 
ture, he devoted himself to assiduous study, and was 
continually reading Rousseau, in order to glean ideas 
for his speeches.* His perseverance was indefatigable. 
He seems to have formed for himself a system out of 
the boldest and wildest visions of Rousseau, domestic, 
social, and political. Not like many of the demagogues 
of the day, he never adopted the external habits of a 
sans-culotte, but appeared among his fellow Jacobins 
with hair nicely arranged and powdered; and the 
neatness of his dress was carefully attended to, so as 
to counterbalance, if possible, the vulgarity of his 
person.f His features were mean, his complexion 
pale, his veins of a greenish hue. His vanity was of 
the coldest and most selfish character, being such as 
considers neglect as insult, and receives homage 
merely as a tribute ; so that, while praise is received 
without gratitude, it is withheld at the risk of mortal 
hate. Self-love of this dangerous character is closely 
allied with envy, and Robespierre was one of the most 
envious and vindictive men that ever lived.J Mira- 
beau, whom he courted at the outset of the revolution, 
despised him ; and full of the ambition of being a 

has been said that he came to Paris in company with the notorious 
Marseillais ; but it is not the fact ; he was in Paris before the 20th 
of June. He did, as we shall see, go from Paris to meet that band 
at Charenton, as they approached the capital. 

* " His apartments, though small, were elegant, and vanity had 
filled them with representations of the occupant. His picture at 
length hung in one place, his miniature in another, his bust occupied 
a niche, and on the table were exposed a few medallions exhibiting 
his head in profile." — Memoirs of Barbaroux. 

t " While the other leaders of the populace affected a squalid 
dress and dirty linen, he alone appeared in elegant attire." — Alison. 
" I had twice occasion to converse with Robespierre. He had a 
sinister expression of countenance, never looked you in the face, 
and had a continual and unpleasant winking of the eye." — Dumont. 

I Scott. 



124 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

leader, he felt rebuked and humiliated in consequence 
of the neglect he experienced, outshone as he was by 
the brilliant orators of the first Assembly. His voice 
was feeble, his delivery unskilful, his eloquence me- 
diocre ; " and being unable to render himself remark- 
able in any other^^way," says Mignet, " than by the 
singularity of his opinions, he figured as a violent 
reformer. His ardent self-love kept him constantly 
aiming at the first rank in the revolution, and led him 
to work wonders to obtain it, and to venture every- 
thing to maintain himself in it. He had all the qualities 
of a tyrant; a mind which was without grandeur, but 
which, nevertheless, was not vulgar ; the advantage 
of having but a single ruling idea, a reputation for 
being above corruption, an austere life, and no aver- 
sion to the shedding of blood. He was a living proof, 
that amidst civil troubles, it is not by means of talent, 
but conduct, that political successes are gained ; and 
that obstinate mediocrity is more powerful than irre- 
gular abihty." In the lower sphere in which he moved, 
says Thiers, he excited enthusiasm by his dogmatism 
and by his reputation for incorruptibility. He thus 
founded his popularity upon blind passions and mode- 
rate understandings. Austerity and cold dogmatism 
captivate ardent characters, nay, often superior minds. 
There were actually men who were disposed to dis- 
cover in Robespierre real energy, and talents superior 
to those which he possessed. Others, without talents, 
but subdued by his pedantry, went about repeating 
that he was the man who ought to be put at the head 
of the Revolution, and that without such a dictator it 
could not go on. For his part, winking at all these 
assertions of his partisans, he never attended any of 
the secret meetings of the conspirators ; but kept him- 
self in the back-ground, leaving the business of acting 
to his panegyrists.* 

Marat, who was looking for a dictator, wished to 
ascertain if Robespierre w^as fit for the office. An 

* Shoberl's translation of Thiers. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 125 

interview took place, but the former found in the latter 
none of that sanguinary audacity which he himself 
derived from his monstrous convictions — in short, no 
genius. He departed, filled with contempt for this 
little man, declared him incapable of serving the state, 
and became more firmly persuaded than ever that he 
himself alone possessed the grand social system. 

Danton was more capable than any other of being 
the leader whom all ardent imaginations desired, for 
the purpose of giving unity to the revolutionary move- 
ments. Unsuccessful at the bar, poor, and consumed 
by passions, he had rushed into the political commo- 
tions of the times with ardor ; his audacity was extra- 
ordinary, and he was capable of executing all that the 
atrocious mind of Marat was capable of conceiving. 
His giant figure, his great strength of voice, his 
eccentric but towering oratory, captivated the mob 
and the clubs ; and he was therefore the most formid- 
able leader of those bands which were one and all 
guided by public declamation.* His features were 
flat and somewhat African ; his face expressed by 
turns the brutal passions, jollity, and even good nature. 
He was the slave of his passions and greedy of plea- 
sure. Audacious and fond of hurrying forward to the 
decisive moment, he was incapable of that assiduous 
toil which the thirst of rule requires ; and, though he 
possessed great influence over the conspirators, yet 
he did not govern them. He was merely capable, 
when they hesitated, of rousing their courage and pro- 
pelling them to a goal by a decisive plan of operation.f 

* " A starving advocate in 1789, he rose in audacity and eminence 
with the public disturbances ; prodigal in expense, and drowned in 
debt, he had no chance, at any period, even of personal freedom, but 
in constantly advancing with the fortunes of the Revolution. Like 
Mirabeau, he was the slave of sensual passions ; like him, he was 
the terrific leader, during his ascendancy, of the ruling class ; but he 
shared the character, not of the patricians who commenced the 
Revolution, but of the plebeians who consummated its wickedness. 
Bold, unprincipled, and daring, he held that the end in every case 
justified the means ; that nothing was impossible to those who had 
the courage to attempt it."— AZison. 

t Thiers. 



126 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

He was a revolutionist of the most violent class, says 
Mignet, and no means appeared to him wrong, pro- 
vided they were useful. He has been styled the Mira- 
beau of the populace, and bore some resemblance to 
that tribune of the higher orders ; their vices were the 
same; and what was bold in the conceptions of Mira- 
beau might be traced in Danton, but bearing a differ- 
ent character, as belonging to a different class and 
period of the revolution. This powerful demagogue 
presented a mixture of discordant vices and qualities. 
Like Mirabeau, he tampered with the court, and 
received large sums from it. Whilst he was making 
incendiary motions in the Jacobin meetings, he was a 
spy for the court, to which he regularly reported what- 
ever occurred.* Reproached with not fulfilling his 
bargain, his excuse was that in order to retain the 
means of serving the court, he was necessitated in 
appearance to treat it as an enemy.f 

The court, viewing the many movements in agita- 
tion against it, took some measures to screen itself 
from a sudden attack. It had formed a club, called 
the French Club, which met near the palace, and was 
composed of artisans and soldiers of the national 
guard. They had arms concealed in the building in 
which they assembled, and, in case of emergency, 
could hasten to the aid of the royal family. It also 
kept a band in pay, which alternately occupied the 
galleries in the Assembly, coffee-houses, and public 
places, for the purpose of speaking in favor of the 
King, and opposing the continual tumults of the 
patriots. 

At length, on the 30th of July, the Marseillais 
arrived. Their ranks comprised all the most fiery 
spirits of the South, and all the most turbulent char- 
acters that commerce brought to the port of Marseilles. 
Barbaroux went to Charenton to meet them. They 
entered Paris at the Barriere du Trone, and traversed 
the city till they came to the Assembly ; in their pro- 

* Memoirs of La Fayette. t Thiers. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 127 

gress obliging all persons they met in the streets to 
change their cockades made of silk for others of 
worsted ; overturning, too, as they marched along, all 
the stalls where silk cockades were sold. Crowds of 
the lower orders thronged along with them, with 
shouts of rude welcome, and the whole scene was 
that of turbulence and drunkenness. After having 
paid their homage to the Assembly, where they were 
received with applause, they repaired to the Champs- 
Elysees, to be entertained, by Santerre and his fau- 
bourg followers, with a dinner. On the same day, 
and at the same hour, a party devoted to the court 
were also dining there. A quarrel was stirred up, and 
a furious riot ensued. The fiery Marseillais put the 
royahsts to flight, killing one and wounding many. 
Some of the fugitives arrived, covered with blood, at 
the Tuilleries. Attentions, perfectly natural, were paid 
to them, since they were regarded as friends who had 
suflTered for their attachment. This occasioned fresh 
reports, and fresh animosity, against the royal family 
and the ladies of the court, who, it was said, wiped 
oflf the perspiration and blood of the wounded. 

Insubordination now became general, and the exas- 
peration of the multitude was fired by a proclamation 
issued by the Duke of Brunswick, commanding the 
allied armies, and now marching to the rescue of 
Louis XVI. The proclamation was couched in lan- 
guage intolerable even to the feelings of such French- 
men as still might retain towards their King some sen- 
timents of loyalty. All the towns or villages which 
should offer the slightest resistance to the allies, were, 
in this ill-timed manifesto, menaced with fire and 
sword. Paris was declared responsible for the safety 
of Louis, and the most violent threats of the total sub- 
version of that great metropolis were denounced as 
the penalty. This acted upon the other motives for 
insurrection, as a high pressure upon a steam-engine, 
producing explosion. The cause of the King was by 
this manifesto identified with the invaders beyond a 
doubt in the minds of the French, and it became every 



128 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

hour more evident that the capital was speedily to be 
the scene of some dreadful event.* 

On the morning of the 3d of August, Petion, mayor 
of Paris, appeared before the Assembly, presenting a 
petition, in the name of the forty-eight sections of 
Paris, proposing the dethronement of the King, and 
praying the Assembly to insert that important question 
in the order of the day. The question was adjourned 
until Thursday the 9th of August. In the meantime, 
day after day, petitions to the same effect, poured into 
the Assembly. The King's friends, seeing the crisis, 
were preparing for his flight; ready themselves to 
accompany the royal carriage, and, if it were neces- 
sary, to perish by its side. Louis at first assented, but 
afterwards, inspirited by the tidings of Brunswick's 
approach, changed his mind. The day fixed for the 
dethronement was near. The plan of the insurrection 
was settled and known. The Marseillais, whose bar- 
racks were at the farthest extremitv of Paris, had 
repaired to the section of the Cordeliers, where the 
club of that name was held, and were now posted in 
the heart of the capital. The 10th of August was the 
day fixed for the insurrection and attack on the Tuil- 
leries. The chief place of assembling was to be in the 
faubourg St. Antoine. On the evening of the 9th 
instant, the Jacobins, after a stormy debate in their 
meeting, proceeded thither in a body, where the 
inhabitants of that faubourg, under the command of 
Santerre, were assembling, armed with pikes, swords, 
scythes and bludgeons. On the other side of the river, 
the sans-culottes were likewise collecting together in 
the faubourg St. Marceau, with Lengendre, Fourier, 
and others, fbr their leaders. But the most formidable 
band was that which assembled at the club of the 
Cordehers; among them were the five hundred Mar- 
seillais, and the vigor of Danton gave energy to all 
their proceedings. Barbaroux, after stationing scouts 
at the Assembly and at the Tuilleries, had provided 

* Scott. 



TIJE REIGN OP TERROR. 129 

couriers ready to start for the South. He had also 
provided himself with a dose of poison, such was the 
uncertainty of success, and awaited at the Cordeliers 
the result of the insurrection. It is not known where 
Robespierre was this night. All parties hesitated as 
on the eve of a great and momentous undertaking, 
but Danton, with a daring proportionate to the impor- 
tance of the event, ascended the tribune in the club 
of the Cordeliers, and raised his stentorian voice. He 
enumerated what he called the crimes of the court. 
He expatiated on its hate to the constitution, its de- 
ceitful language, its hypocritical promises, always 
belied by its conduct, and its plots for bringing in 
foreigners. " The people," said he, " can now have 
recourse but to themselves. The legislators are the 
accomplices of the criminals. This very night the 
perfidious Louis has chosen to deliver to carnage and 
conflagration the capital, which he is prepared to quit 
in the moment of its ruin ! You have therefore none 
left to save you but yourselves. Lose no time, then, 
for the satellites of the palace are ready to sally forth 
upon the people and to slaughter them, before they 
quit Paris ! Save yourselves, then ! To arms ! to 
arms !" The insurgents, and especially the Marseil- 
lais, impatiently called for the signal to march.* 

Aware of their danger, the court had been for some 
days making preparations to resist the threatened at- 
tack. Their principal reliance was on the Swiss guard, 
whose loyalty, always conspicuous, had been wrought 
up to the highest pitch by the misfortunes and liber- 
ality of the royal family. The number of these in 
attendance was between eight and nine hundred ; 
and Mandat, commander of the National Guard, had 
marched with his staff to defend the palace, — in the 
interior of which were seven or eight hundred royal- 
ists, chiefly of noble families, determined to share the 
danger of Louis XVI. ; but, without any regular uni- 
form, variously armed with pistols, sabres and fire- 

* Mignet ; Thiers ; Alison. 

12* 



130 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

locks. The heavy dragoons, on horseback, with seve- 
ral pieces of artillery, were stationed in the gardens 
and court. Of this civic force some, and especially 
the artillery-men, were as ill-disposed towards the 
King as possible ; others were well inclined to him ; 
the greater part remained doubtful. 

It is now near midnight — the night is beautiful and 
calm. In the palace the windows are opened to the 
air, for the atmosphere is warm ; the apartments are 
all crowded with anxious hearts, hovering around the 
royal family, imparting consolation, assuring them 
that Mandat was entirely in the royal interests, and 
that he had disposed his force to the best advantage 
for discouraging the mutinous, and giving confidence 
to the well-disposed ; ' that a squadron on the Pont 
Neuf, with cannon, would turn back the Marseillais 
when they attempted to come across the river; that 
another at the Hotel-de-Ville would cut St. Antoine in 
two as it issued from the Arcade St. Jean, drive one 
half back to the obscure east, drive the other half for- 
ward through the wickets of the Louvre ; that mount- 
ed squadrons in the Palais Royal, and in the Place 
Vendome, would charge at the right moment, sweep 
this street, and then sweep that.' But the King seemed 
to recover no fortitude from these assurances. " I 
have no longer anything to do with earth," he said ; 
"I must turn all my thoughts on Heaven." 

Midnight — hark ! — a gun. " To arms ! to arms !" 
is the cry, which soon spreads far and wide, and the 
insurrection is proclaimed. The Marseillais quickly 
formed before the door of the Cordeliers, and a nu- 
merous concourse, ranged itself by its side. The 
tocsin sounded, and the generale beat to arms in all 
quarters of Paris. The first step was to seize the 
municipality at the Hotel-de-Ville, and a*ppoint a new 
magistracy. This was done almost without opposi- 
tion, so completely were all the authorities paralyzed 
by the impending danger. The dismal sound of the 
tocsin now pealed through the air, pervading the 
whole extent of the capital. It was wafted from 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 131 

Street to street, from building to building. It called 
the deputies, the magistrates, the citizens, to their 
posts. At length it reached the palace, proclaiming 
that the terrible night was come. To this melancholy- 
music the contending parties arranged their forces for 
attack or defence. Mandat had but just completed 
the disposal of his defensive force, when he received 
an order to repair before the municipality. He hesi- 
tated ; but those about him, not deeming it right yet 
to infringe the law by refusing to appear, exhorted 
him to comply. He then decided. He put into the 
hands of his son, who was with him at the palace, the 
order signed by Petion to repel force by force, and 
obeyed the summons of the municipality. On reach- 
ing the Hotel-de-Ville, he was surprised to find there 
a nevj authority. He was instantly surrounded and 
questioned concerning the order which he had issued. 
He was then dismissed, and, in dismissing him, the 
president made a sign which was equivalent to sen- 
tence of death. As he retired he was clutched by the 
mob outside and massacred on the steps. The mur- 
derers stripped him of his clothes, without finding 
about him the order, and his body was thrown into 
the river. This sanguinary deed paralyzed all the 
means of defence of the palace. The drums continued 
to beat, and the storm-bells to peal. It was a night of 
alarm, confusion, horror ! The incessant clang of 
the tocsin, the rolling of drums, the ratthng of artil- 
lery along the streets, the shouts of the insurgents, 
and the march of columns, mingled upon the ear! 
The Marseillais impatiently awaited at the Pont St. 
Michel for the arrival of the faubourgs St. Antoine 
and St. Marceau. Santerre had delayed setting his 
columns in motion, apparently moved by some doubt 
in regard to the success of the insurrection. Wester- 
mann kept urging him, but in vain, until he clutched 
him by the throat with drawn sabre. The faubourgs 
now successively arrived, some by the Rue St. Honore, 
others by the Pont Neuf, the Pont Royal, and the 
wickets of the Louvre. Their numbers were im- 



132 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

mense. But the real strength of the assault was to 
lie in the Marseillais who were placed at the head of 
the columns of the suburb pikemen, as the edge of an 
axe is armed with steel, while the back is of coarse 
metal to give weight to the blow. Being formed, they 
now marched through the night. — tramp ! tramp ! to- 
wards the Tuilleries — the tocsin still sounding — bell 
, answering bell from steeple to steeple — clang! clang! 
" And at the Hotel-de-Ville, it is Marat himself who is 
pulling the rope. Robespierre lies deep, invisible, for 
the next forty hours." All Paris — its seven hundred 
thousand — is awake and astir. The Assembly has 
met, and sits attempting to debate, with perhaps a 
disposition to aid the court, but not the power. Pa- 
trols of the insurgents fly about the streets, arresting 
spies of the court ; in the Champs Elysees, seventeen 
persons, with pistols and rapiers, are seized and 
carried to the nearest guard-house, from which eleven 
of them escape by back passages ; the remaining six 
are dragged out by the mob, and in the whirl two 
more escape, but four are doomed to death, and are 
massacred upon the spot ! 

Such are the scenes that usher in the dawn of the 
10th of August, 1792, at which hour the palace of the 
Tuilleries is completely besieged by the assailants, as 
those within the palace see through the old doors of 
the courts and from the windows. * And while irres- 
olution and despondency prevailed at the Tuilleries, 
the energy of the insurgents was hourly increasing. 
Early in the morning the arsenal was forced, and 
arms were distributed to the multitude. The ad- 
vanced guard of the faubourgs, composed of the Mar- 
seillais, was arranged in battle array, with their cannon 
pointed against the palace. Fifteen thousand of the 
faubourg St. Antoine, and five thousand of St. Mar- 
ceau, were ready to assist them. 

The King, after showing himself on the balcony, 
went down to review the troops, but he was received 

♦ Mignet, Thiers, Alison, Scott, Carlyle, etc. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 133 

coldly by them ; cries of " Vive la Nation ! Down with 
the Veto ! Down with the traitor !" rose from the 
populace on all sides, and he returned, pale and dis- 
pirited to the palace. Though the Swiss were to be 
depended upon, it was evident that many battalions of 
the National Guard would at the first onset join with 
the insurgents. In this crisis, Louis was advised to 
throw himself upon the protection of the Assembly ; 
and it was represented to him that, unless he did so, 
the destruction of the royal family was inevitable. 
The Q,ueen vehemently opposed this plan. " I would 
rather," said she, •' be nailed to the walls of the 
palace than leave it !" It is even asserted that, snatch- 
ing a pistol from the belt of one of those around 
her, she presented it to the King, exclaiming, " Now 
is the time to show yourself!" He remained silent ; 
he had the resignation of a martyr, but not the spirit 
of a hero. The behaviour of Marie Antoinette, was 
magnanimous in the highest degree. Her majestic 
air, her Austrian lip, her aquiline nose, gave her an 
air of dignity which can only be conceived by those 
who beheld her in that trying hour. * 

At length Louis XVI. decided to retire to the As- 
sembly. He rose up, and addressing himself to those 
around him, said, " Gentlemen, nothing remains to be 
done here." Accompanied by his wife, his sister, and 
his children, he descended the stairs. A detachment 
of Swiss and of the National Guard escorted them, 
and had the utmost difficulty in getting them into the 
Assembly, amid the menaces and execrations of the 
multitude. They were interrupted every moment of 
their progress by the swaying of the crowd. "Gen- 
tlemen," said the King, on entering the Assembly, " I 
come to prevent a great crime, and I think that I cannot 
be safer than in the midst of you." Verginaud, who 
was in the chair, replied that he might rely on the 
firmness of the National Assembly ; that its members 
had sworn to die in defence of the rights of the people 

* Thiers ; Alison ,* Lacretelle, etc 



134 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

and of the constituted authorities." Louis seated 
himself beside the President, but a member observing 
that his presence might affect the freedom of delibera- 
tion, he and his family were placed in the box of the 
writer appointed to report the proceedings. * It was 
in this prison, (the reporter's box,) six feet square and 
eight feet high, that the King and his family spent 
fourteen hours together in the course of a day that 
was burning hot. As the mob kept tumultuously 
crowding round the hall, it was found advisable to 
destroy an iron railing, which separated this lodge 
from the Assembly, that the King might be able to get 
into the Assembly in case the box should be attacked. 
Four of the ministers and the King himself were 
obliged to pull down this railing, without any instru- 
ment, and merely by the strength of their hands and 
arms. The King then sat down and remained in 
his chair, with his hat off, during the debate that 
followed, and taking no refreshment for the whole 
time but a peach and a glass of water, f Exhausted 
by fatigue, the infant dauphin dropped off into a pro- 
found sleep in his mother's arms ; the princess royal 
and Madame Elizabeth, their eyes streaming tears, sat 
on each side of the Queen. | 

Meanwhile the new municipality, with Danton di- 
recting its movements, had urged the populace on to 
the attack upon the Tuilleries. The gendarmerie, sta- 
tioned in front of the palace, quitted their post, crying 
*' Vive la Nation !" The cannoniers openly joined the 
insurgents, and the National-guard was so divided as 
to be incapable of action. The Swiss guards alone 
remained firm in resolution amid the defection of all 
around them. The crowd in the palace was dense, 
and on the outside of it gleamed the pikes and guns 
of the assailants, who now commenced the attack. 
The Swiss fired from the windows, and speedily drove 
back the foremost of the invaders; then descending 
the staircase, they ranged themselves in battle array, 

* Thiere. t Peltier. t Alison; Thiers. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 135 

and by a heavy and sustained fire they completely dis- 
persed the insurgents for the time, who fled in confu- 
sion as far as the Pont Neuf, and many did not stop 
till they reached their homes in the faubourgs.* But 
the MarseiUais were ashamed of having given way; 
they rallied, and returned to the charge with fury.' 
They rushed forward, fell in great numbers, but at 
length gained the vestibule of the palace, and made 
themselves masters of it. The rabble, with pikes, 
poured in after them, and the rest of the scene was 
but a general massacre. The unfortunate Swiss, in 
vain, begged for quarter, at the same time throwing 
down their arms. They were butchered without 
mercy.f The gentlemen-ushers of the chambers, the 
pages of the back-stairs, the door-keepers, even per- 
sons in the lowest and most servile employments, 
were all ahke butchered. Streams of blood flowed 
everywhere from the roofs to the cellars. It was im- 
possible to set foot on a single spot without treading 
on a dead body. Stripped, many of them, as soon as 
they were murdered, their lifeless bodies presented in 
addition to the ghastliness of death, the shocking 
spectacle of mutilation of which the mind may con- 
ceive, but modesty forbids a description. And among 
the perpetrators of these atrocious deeds were found 
women ! Bureaus were burst open ; furniture was bro- 
ken and thrown out of the windows ; the cellars were 
ransacked; and, in short, the whole presented nothing 
but scenes of devastation and death, with rapine, 
drunkenness and impunity hourly increasing.! Some 
of the fugitives, escaping from the palace, were pur- 
sued into the garden by the faubourg pikemen, and 
there unmercifully put to death under the trees, amid 
the fountains, and at the feet of the statues. § 

The Assembly had anxiously awaited the issue of 
the combat, and at eleven o'clock were heard shouts 
of victory a thousand times repeated. The doors 
yielded to the pressure of a mob intoxicated with joy 

* Alison. t Thiers. J Peltier. $ Alison. 



136 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

and fury. Vergniaud had for a moment quitted the 
chair, for the purpose of drawing up the decree of de- 
thronement. He returned, and the Assembly, in the 
presence of the King, passed the decree that " Louis 
XVI, is, for the time being, suspended from royalty — 
A plan of education is directed for the prince-royal — A 
national convention is convoked." 

At the palace the massacre and devastation con- 
tinued. The rabble penetrated into the private apart- 
ments of the Glueen and indulged in the most obscene 
mirth. They pried into the most secret recesses, ran- 
sacked every depository of papers, broke open every 
lock, and enjoyed the twofold gratification of curiosity 
and destruction. To the horrors of murder and pil- 
lage were added those of conflagration. The flames, 
having already consumed the sheds contiguous to the 
outer-courts, began to spread to the edifice, but were 
soon extinguished. The streets were strewed with 
wrecks of furniture and dead bodies. Every one who 
fled, or was supposed to be fleeing, was treated as an 
enemy, pursued, and fired at. An almost incessant 
report of musketry succeeded that of the cannon, and 
was every moment the signal of fresh murders.* " I 
ran from place to place," says Clery, the King's valet, 
"and finding the apartments and staircases already 
strewed with dead bodies, I took the resolution of leap- 
ing from one of the windows down upon the terrace. 
I continued my road till I came to the dauphin's garden 
gate, where some Marseillais who had just butchered 
several of the Swiss were stripping them. At four 
o'clock in the afl;ernoon the slaughter was still going 
on ; the women, lost to all sense of shame, committing 
the most indecent mutilations on the bodies, from 
which they tore pieces of flesh, and carried them off" 
in triumph. Toward evening, I took the road to Ver- 
sailles, and crossed the Pont Louis Seize which was 
covered with the naked carcases of men already in a 
state of putrefaction from the great heat of the wea- 
ther. 

♦ Thiera 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 137 

While these terrible scenes were going forward, the 
Assembly was in the most violent agitation. The tu- 
mult around the hall continued to rage with extreme 
violence, and, in the opinion of the people, it was not 
sufficient to have suspended royalty — it ought at once 
to be abolished. Petitions on this subject poured in, 
and the multitude, in an uproar without, twice or 
thrice so nearly bursted in the doors as to excite ap- 
prehensions for the unfortunate family of which the 
Assembly had taken charge. Vergniaud replied to the 
petitions. " The Assembly," said he, " has decreed the 
suspension of the executive power, and appointed a 
convention which is to decide irrevocably the great 
question of the dethronement. It has thus satisfied all 
wants, and at the same time kept within the limits of 
its prerogatives." These words produced a favorable 
impression, the petitioners were satisfied, and ex- 
plained the nature of the case to the people without. 
At three o'clock on the morning of the 11th, the As- 
sembly closed its sitting, the royal family having been 
removed two hours previously to ' three little rooms 
on the upper floor ' of the building in which the As- 
sembly met, there to be guarded until the palace of 
the Luxembourg should be prepared for their recep- 
tion. Here they remained three days, and on the 13th, 
the Assembly, at the command of the municipality, di- 
rected that they should be removed to the Temple, in- 
asmuch as the Luxembourg could not be got ready. 
Thither they proceeded in the carriage of Petion, with 
a prodigious press of people staring at them, shouting 
♦' Vive la Nation." The carriage was stopped on the 
Place Vendome, in order that the royal captives might 
see the fragments of the statue of Louis XIV, which 
had shared the fate of all such monuments of royalty 
since the 10th.* 

Robespierre now showed himself, and pretended to 

* " Louis XVI, to whom the Assembly had at first assigned the 
Luxembourg as a residence, was transferred to the Temple as a 
prisoner, under the pretext, that it was impossible, without such a 
6tep, to be secure of his person." — Mignet. 
13 



138 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

have been active in bringing about the 10th of August. 
Marat changed the title of his paper fi-om ' L'Ami du 
Peuple' to tliatof The Journal deRepublique.' Danton 
was all-powerful. The cry of the mob was for ven- 
geance on the aristocrats, and petitions poured into the 
Assembly, generally presented at the bar by Robes- 
pierre. " Blood," he exclaimed, " has not yet flowed ; 
the people remain without vengeance. No sacrifice 
has yet been made to the manes of those who died on 
the 10th of August. And what have been the results 
of that immortal day 1 A tyrant has been suspended ; 
why is he not dethroned and punished 1" 

The Prussian army was advancing; Lojjgioi had 
already capitulated, and Verdun was now bombarded. 
These tidings filled the populace of Paris with the 
greatest terror; they expected the army of the enemy 
would soon be under the walls of their city. The 
blame was all attached to the loyahsts; Marat called 
for extermination of the aristocrats, and a Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal was created that should have the 
power of pronoimcing, without appeal, the extreme 
punishment of the law. " My advice is," said Danton, 
"that, to disconcert their measures and arrest the 
enemy, we strike terror into the loyalists." And on 
the 29th of xA.ugust the barriers were closed, remain- 
ing shut for forty-eight hours, so as to render all es- 
cape impossible; domiciliary visits were made, by order 
of the municipality, with a vast and appalling force : 
" Let the reader fancy to himself," says an eye-wit- 
ness, " a vast metropolis, the streets of which were 
before alive with the concourse of carriages, and with 
citizens constantly passing and repassing — let him 
fancy to himself, I say, streets so populous and so ani- 
mated, suddenly struck with the dead silence of the 
grave, before sunset, on a fine summer evening. All 
the shops are shut ; every one retires into the interior 
of his house, trembling for life and property. Every- 
where persons and property are put into concealment. 
Every one supposes himself to be informed against. 
Everywhere are heard the interrupted sounds of the 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 139 

muffled hammer, with cautions knock completing the 
hiding-place. Roofs, garrets, sinks, chimneys — all are 
just the same to fear, incapable of calculating any risk. 
One man, squeezed up behind the wainscot which has 
been nailed back on him, seems to form part of the 
wall; another is suffocated with fear and heat be- 
tween two mattrasses; a third, rolled up in a cask, 
loses all sense of existence by the tension of his sin- 
ews. Apprehension is stronger than pain. Patroles, 
consisting of sixty pikemen, were in every street. 
The nocturnal tumult of so many armed men ; the in- 
cessant knocks to make people open their doors ; the 
crash of those that were burst off their hinges ; and 
the continued uproar and revelling which took place 
throughout the night in all the public-houses, formed 
a picture which will never be effaced from my me- 
mory." * 

Marat, perceiving aristocrats on all sides conspi- 
ring against liberty, collected here and there all the 
facts that gratified his passion, and denounced with 
fury, all the names mentioned to him. Great numbers 
of all ranks, suspected of being adverse to the new 
order of things, were imprisoned; but the victims 
were chiefly selected from the nobility and the clergy. 
The utmost terror was excited by these preparations. 
An uncertain feeling of horror prevailed. Popular tu- 
mult was kept up. " Death to the aristocrats !" was 
the cry, and on the 2nd of September, (it was Sun- 
day,) the direful tragedy commenced. At two o'clock, 
the generale began to beat, the tocsin rang, and the 
alarm-gun thundered. There were at the Hotel-de- 
Ville twenty-four priests, who had been apprehended 
on account of their refusal to take the oath to the con- 
stitution, and were now to be removed to the prisons 
of the Abbaye. - They were placed in six hackney 
coaches, and conveyed, at a slow pace, along the 
quays, over the Pont Neuf, surrounded by a clamo- 
rous crowd, loading them with abuse. At length they 
reached the court of the Abbaye, where a multitude 

* Peltier. 



140 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

was collected. A furious rabble surrounded the first 
coach that drove up. The first of the prisoners stepped 
forward to alight, but was immediately pierced by a 
thousand weapons. The second threw himself back 
into the carriage, but was dragged forth and slaugh- 
tered hke the other ; and as the other coaches drove 
up, the priests were all dragged forth, and despatched 
amidst the howls of their murderers.* 

At this moment Billaud-Varennes arrived ; he was a 
member of the council of the municipahty, and the 
only one of the organizers of these massacres who 
dared openly to encounter the sight of them, and 
openly to defend them. He came, wearing his scarf 
Walking in blood, and over the dead bodies of the 
priests, he addressed the crowd of murderers, and 
complimented them upon doing their duty. Maillard, 
(formerly so conspicuous in the attack upon Ver- 
sailles,) was the leader of the assassins, and now 
called upon them to follow him to the Church of the 
Carmelites, in which two hundred priests were con- 
fined. They broke into the church, and furiously fell 
upon the unfortunate priests, who prayed to Heaven 
and embraced each other, as the strokes of the mur- 
derers put them to death. f The assassins called with 
loud shouts for the Archbishop of Aries. "I am he," 
said the venerable prelate, stepping forward. "Ah, 
wretch !" exclaimed one, " it is you who caused the 
blood of the patriots of Aries to be spilled 1" — aiming a 
blow with his sword at the prelate's forehead. He 
received it unmoved. A second dreadful gash was 
given him in the face. The third blow brought him to 
the ground, where he rested on his left hand without 
uttering a murmur. While he lay thus, one of the 
assassins plunged his pike into his breast with such 
violence that the iron part stuck thei-e. The ruffian 
then jumped on the prelate's palpitating body, trampled 
ijpon it, and tore away his watch.f After using their 
swords, they employed fire-arms, and discharged vol- 

. * Thiers. t Thierst t Peltier. 



I 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 141 

eys into the rooms and in the garden, at the tops of 
,he walls and the trees, where some of the victims 
jought to escape their fury. 

Completing the work of death here, Maillard, and 
lis gang, returned to the Hotel-de-Ville, and demanded 
ivine for " the brave laborers who were dehvering the 
lation from its enemies." Twenty-four quarts were 
granted them. " To the Abbaye !" Maillard now 
shouted, pointing to the prison. His gang followed 
lim, and attacked the door. The trembling prisoners 
leard the yells — the signal for their death ! The doors 
were burst in, and the first of the prisoners who 
ivere met with were seized, dragged forth by the legs, 
Dutchered, and their bleeding bodies thrown into the 
:ourt. Some humane persons who had now collected 
^n the spot interposed, and the murderers so far 
lesisted for the moment as to consent to a kind of 
trial of each individual. Maillard was made president 
by acclamation, and, seating himself at a table, with a 
3rawn sabre before him, and his clothes drenched in. 
blood, he proceeded to pass sentence. The list of the 
prisoners was placed before him ; he called around 
him a few men, taken at random, to give their 
opinions, and sent some into the prison to bring out 
the inmates, posting others at the door to consum- 
mate the massacre. It was agreed that, in order to 
spare scenes of anguish, Maillard should pronounce 
these words, " Sir, to La Force !" when the prisoner 
should be taken out at the wicket, and, unaware of the 
fate which awaited him, be delivered up to the swords 
of the party posted there.* The Swiss confined in 
the Abbaye, and whose officers had been taken to the 
Conciergerie, were first brought forward. "It was 
you," said Maillard, " who murdered the people on the 
10th of August." The Swiss replied that they were 
attacked, and that they obeyed their officers. " At any 
rate," coldly replied Maillard, " you are only going to 
be taken to La Force." But the prisoners, who had 

* Thiers ; Alison. 
13* 



142 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

caught a glimpse of the pikes and swords brnndishH 
on the other side of the wicket, were not to be de- 
ceived. They were ordered to go, but halted, and 
drew back. One of them, more courageous, asked 
which way they were to go. The door was opened, 
and he rushed headlong amidst the swords and pikes. 
The others followed, and met the same fate.* 

Thus the carnage continued throughout that horrid 
night. The murderers succeeded each other at the 
tribunal and the wicket, and became by turns judges 
and executioners. Dragged from their dungeons and 
cells, the prisoners were hurried before MailJard, or 
whoever relieved him for a time in his office, and a 
few minutes, often a few seconds, disposed of the fate 
of each individual; thrust from the pretended hall of 
judgment, they were turned out to the populace, who 
despatched them, demanding a quicker supply of vic- 
tims. " The victims were despatched," says fcrcott, "by 
men and women, who, with sleeves tucked up, arms 
dyed elbow-deep in blood, hands holding axes, pikes 
and sabres, were executioners of the sentence." The 
murderers formed an avenue, a row of them on each 
side, the weapon of each descending upon the victim 
as he issued from the door. A complaint arose amongst 
them, that those nearest the door had the best chance 
at the aristocrats, and that the aristocrats were dead 
before the others could get a stroke at them. It was, 
in consequence, agreed that those in advance should 
only strike with the backs of their sabres, and that 
the victims should be made to run the gauntlet through 

* Thiers. — " The Swiss prisoners, remnants of the Tenth of Au- 
gust, ' clasped each other spasmodically,' and hung back ; grey 
veterans crying 'Mercy, messieurs, ah, mercy!' But ihere was no 
meicy. Suddenly, however, one of these men steps forward He 
had on a blue frock-coat ; he seemed about thirty, his stkture was 
above common, his look noble and martial. ' I go first,' said he, 
* since it must be so. Adieu !' Then dashing his hat sharply behind 
him, ' Which way V cried he ; ' show it me then.' They open the 
folding-gate ; he is announced to the multitude. He stands a mo- 
ment motionless; then plunges forth among the pikes, and dies of a 
thousand wounds." — Carlyle. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 143 

the murderers, each of whom should have the satis- 
faction of striking them before they expired. The 
women in the adjoining quarter of the city made a 
formal demand to the municipality for lights to see the 
massacres, and a lamp was consequently placed near 
the door from which the victims issued. Benches, 
under the charge of sentinels, were next arranged, 
" for the ladies," and anotiier " for the gentlemen," to 
v/itness the spectacle. As each successive prisoner 
was turned out of the gate, yells of fiendish exultation 
rose from the murderers and the great crowd of spec- 
tators, and when he fell they danced like cannibals 
round his remains.* M. Thierry, one of the King's 
valets, after he was condemned to die, kept crying out 
* God save the King,' even when he had a pike run 
through his body ; and, as if these words were blas- 
phemous, the assassins, in a rage, burned his face with 
two torches. The Count de St. Mart, one of the 
prisoners, had a spear run through both of his sides ; 
his executioners then forced him to crawl upon his 
knees, with his body thus skewered, and burst out 
laughing at his convulsive writhings ; the}'- at last put 
an end to his agony by cutting off his head. Young 
Masaubre had hid himself in a chimney. As he could 
not be found, the assassins were resolved to make the 
jailor answerable. The latter, accustomed to the des- 
peration of the prisoners, and, knowing that the chim- 
ney was well secured at the top by bars of iron, fired a 
gun up several times. One ball hit Masaubre, and 
broke his wrist. He had sufficient self-command to 
endure the pain in silence. The jailor then set fire to 
some straw ; the smoke suffocated the unfortunate 
youth, he tumbled down, and was dragged out, in a 
wounded, burnt, and half dead condition. On being 
taken into the street, the executioners determined to 
complete his death in the manner in which it had been 
begun. He remained almost a quarter of an hour, 
lying in blood among heaps of dead bodies, till fire- 

* Abbe Sicard ; Alison ; Thiers. 



144 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

arms could be procured, when his tortures were put 
to an end by five pistol balls through his head.* 

Thus passed the night ; the doom of the prisoner 
was generally death, and that doom instantly accom- 
plished. In the meanwhile those yet in their cells 
could hear the cries of the murdered, and were con- 
scious of what was going on. Penned up in their 
dungeons, like cattle ready for the knife of the 
butcher, many of them could mark, from windows 
that overlooked the court below, the fate of the others, 
and learn from the horrible scene how they might best 
meet their own fate.f They observed that those who 
held up their hands, to intercept the blows, suffered 
longest, because the strokes of the cutlasses were 
thereby weakened before they reached the head ; that 
even some of the victims lost their hands and arms 
before their bodies fell.l 

In the midst of the massacres. Mademoiselle de 
Sombreuil, eighteen years of age, threw herself on her 
father's neck, and declared they should not strike him 
but through her body — and she clung to him with such 
tenacity, beseeching the assassins with such a flood 
of tears and in such piteous accents, that even their 
fury was suspended. Then, as if to subject that sen- 
sibility which overpowered them to a fresh trial, 
"Drink," said they to this affectionate daughter — 
" Drink ! it is the blood of the aristocrats !" handing 
her a cup filled with blood, and promising to spare the 
life of her father, if she drank it off. fehe did so, and 
he was saved. Mademoiselle Cazotte, of still younger 
years, sought out her aged parent in prison during the 
tumult, and clung so firmly to his neck that it was 
impossible to separate them, and she succeeded in 
softening the murderers, and saving her father's life.^ 

Similar tragedies took place at the same time in all 
the other jails of Paris, and in the religious houses, 
which were all filled with victims. At the Chatelet, 



* Peltier. t Scott t M. de St. Meard- 
$ Thiers ; Peltier ; Alison. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 145 

La Force, the Conceirgerie, the Bernardins, St. Firman, 
La Salpetriere, and the Bicetre, streams of blood 
flowed as at the Abbaye. Next morning, Monday, 
Sept. the 3d, day threw a light upon the horrid carnage 
of the night, and consternation pervaded all the city. 
From the 2nd to the 6th of September these crimes 
proceeded uninterrupted, protracted by the actors for 
the sake of the daily pay of a louis each, openly dis- 
tributed amongst them by order of the municipality. 
The books of the Hotel-de-Ville preserve evidence of 
this fact. There may be seen, says Thiers, in the 
statement of the municipality's expenses, the entries 
of several sums paid to the executioners, and under 
date of September 4th, the sum of one thousand four 
hundred and sixty-three livres charged to the same 
account. At La Force, the Bicetre, and the Abbaye, 
the massacres were continued longer than elsew^here. 
It was at La Force the unfortunate Princess de Lam- 
balle was confined. She had been celebrated at court 
for her beauty, and her intimacy with the Q,ueen, to 
whom she was tenderly attached, and shared her 
captivity in the Temple as a matter of choice, but was 
removed from the presence of the royal family by 
order of the municipality. When the assassins arrived 
at her cell, at eight o'clock on the morning of the 3d, 
she was in bed, oppressed with anxiety and horror. 
Two men entered to inform her that she was going to 
be removed. She slipped on her gown, and went 
down to where two municipal officers, Hebert and 
L'Huillier, presided in the manner that Maillard did at 
the Abbaye. When she entered this frightful court, 
the sight of weapons stained with blood, and of men 
whose hands, faces, and clothes were smeared over 
with the same red dye, so shocked her that she seve- 
ral times fainted. " Who are you 3" she was asked. — 
"Louisa of Savoy, Princess de Lamballe," was her 
answer. " What part do you act at court 1 Are you 
acquainted with the plots of the palace 1" — "I never 
was acquainted with any plot." — "Swear to love 
liberty and equality; swear to hate the King, the 



146 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

Queen, and royalty." — •' I will take the first oath ; the 
second I cannot take ; it is not in my heart." — 
" Swear, however," whispered one of the bystanders, 
who wished her to escape death. But, trembling and 
overcome, the unfortunate lady could neither hear nor 
see — she swooned — was conducted to the door, and 
one of her domestics, whom she had loaded with bene- 
fits, gave the first blow, striking her upon- the back 
of her head just as she stepped over the threshold. 
Two men then laid hold of her, and obliged her to 
walk over dead bodies, while she was fainting every 
instant. They then completed her murder by running 
her through with their pikes on a heap of corpses. 
She was then stripped of her clothes, and her naked 
body exposed to the insults of the populace. In this 
state it remained more than two hours. When any 
blood gushing from its wounds stained the skin, some 
men, placed there for the purpose, immediately washed 
it off, to make the spectators take more particular 
notice of its whiteness. Towards noon, the murder- 
ers determined to cut her head off, and carry it in 
triumph around the streets of Paris. Her beautiful 
form was then torn in pieces. Her head, breasts, and 
heart, were borne on the points of pikes, and her 
limbs trailed along the streets. * "One day," says the 
Duchess D'Abrantes, " as my brother came to visit 
us, he perceived, as he came along, groups of people 
whose sanguinary drunkenness was horrible. Many 
were naked to the waist, their arms and breasts 
covered with blood, their countenances inflamed, 
their eyes haggard, and, in short, they looked hideous. 
My brother, in his uneasiness, determined to come to 
us at all risks, and drove rapidly along the Boulevard, 
until he was stopped by an immense mob, composed 
also of half-naked people, besmeared with blood, and 
who had the appearance of demons. They vociferated, 
sang, and danced. On perceiving my brother's cabri- 
olet, they cried out ' Let it be taken to him ; he is an 

* Thiers; Mercier; Peltier; Alison. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 147 

aristocrat.' In a moment the cabriolet was surround- 
ed, and from the middle of the crowd an object seemed 
to arise and approach. My brother's troubled sight 
did not at first enable him to perceive long auburn 
tresses clotted with blood, and a countenance still 
lovely. The object came nearer and nearer, and rest- 
ed before his face. My unhappy brother uttered a 
piercing cry. He had recognized the head of the 
Princess Lamballe." 

Having carried the head through many streets, the 
tigers next proceeded with it to" the Temple, where 
they paraded it aloft, with loud shouts to attract the 
attention of the King and Q,ueen. The latter fainted 
at the sight of it. Madame Elizabeth, the King, and 
Clery, the valet-de-chambre, carried the unfortunate 
princess away from the window. For a considerable 
time afterwards, the shouts of the ferocious rabble 
rang around the walls of the Temple. 



14 



148 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Massacres — flight of La Fayette from the army — Dumouriez — mas- 
sacre of prisoners at Versailles, their heads stuck on the iron-raii- 
ings round the palace — plunder of the jewel- office. The elections 
in Paris; Robespierre, Danton, Marat, and others elected. The 
Jacobin Club. Louis XVI. and his family. The iron chest. The 
King summoned to the bar of the convention — he is separated 
from his family — brought to trial — discussions in the Convention 
— placards — excitement of the Parisians — the voting — the sen- 
tence — it is read to Louis XVI. — heart-rending interview between 
him and his family, on the night previous to his execution — assas- 
sination of Lepelletier — the death of Louis XVL — shops pillaged 
by the mob. The Girondists — popular indignation against them — 
insurrection of June 2nd — the Convention surrounded — the Girond- 
ists arrested. The provinces incensed — terror — emigration — Char- 
lotte Corday — description of her — she arrives in Paris — her con- 
duct — interview with Marat Marat in his bath — Charlotte stabs 
him — violent scene — her arrest — brought to trial — her answers to 
the judge — her sentence — execution. The body of Marat — funeral 
pomp, and parade with which he is buried, etc. 

M. MiGNET, remarking upon the massacres of Sep- 
tember, says, that " the prisoners shut up at the Car- 
melites, at the Abbaye, at La Force, the Conceirgerie, 
etc., were butchered through the space of three days, 
by a band of about three hundred murderers, under 
the orders, and in the pay, of the municipality. These 
men, inspired by a silent fanaticism, prostituting to the 
ends of murder the sacred forms of justice, acting 
sometimes judges, and sometimes executioners, seemed 
less the ministers of vengeance than the performers 
of a mechanical labour.* They massacred without re- 
morse, with all the confidence of fanatics, and the obe- 
dience of hangmen. The populace looked on as indif- 

* " Women, carrying refreshments, even repaired to the prisons, 
taking dinner to their husbands, who, they said, were at work at the 
Abbaye. The men had even established a sort of regularity in their exe- 
cutions ; suspending them for the purpose of removing the corpses, 
and taking their meals." — Thiers. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 149 

ferent spectators or accomplices. But the punishment 
of that fearful outrage was visited upon the heads of 
its authors. The greater number of them perished 
in the tempest they had raised, and by the violent 
means they had employed." That the Assembly did 
not rise from their seats, repair in a body to the pri- 
sons, and place themselves between the butchers and 
the victims, " must be attributed," remarks Thiers, 
" to surprise, to a feeling of impotence, and to that 
disastrous notion shared by many of the deputies, that 
the victims were so many conspirators, at whose , 
hands death might have been expected, had it not 
been inflicted on themselves." The Bicetre was 
the scene of the longest and most bloody carnage. 
There some thousands of prisoners were confined. 
These when attacked, endeavoured to defend them- 
selves, and cannon were employed to reduce them. 
The thirst for blood urged on the multitude. The 
fury of fighting and murdering had superseded po- 
litical fanaticism, and it killed for the sake of killing. 
At this prison the massacre lasted days and nights, but 
all were eventually assassinated.* 

In the meantime, La Fayette, having in vain at- 
tempted to induce his army to rise in favor of Louis 
XVI. and the constitution, and finding dangers multi- 
plying on all sides, fled from the army on the 17th of 
August, intending to proceed to the United States, 
where his first efforts in favor of freedom had been 
made; but he was arrested near the frontier by the 
Austrians, and conducted to the dungeons of Olmutz. 
He was offered his liberty on condition of making cer- 
tain recantations; but he preferred remaining four 
years in a rigorous confinement, to receding in any 
particular from the principles which he had embraced. 

The Assembly declared him a traitor, and set a price 
on his head ; Marat, Danton and Robespierre, were 
loud in their denunciations of him to the Jacobins ; 
and the first leader of the revolution owed his life to 

* Thiers; Peltier. 



150 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

imprisonment in an Austrian fortress. A friend to the 
revolution, he had from the first been the opponent of 
the Jacobins, perceiving as he did that their violent 
measures must engulph liberty in a vortex of anarchy. 
After his departure, the command of the army devolved 
upon Dumouriez, who had the address to attract vic- 
tory to the French banners, to drive the allies from 
France, and leave his name strongly written in the 
annals of his country. He much surpassed any ex- 
pectation that had. been formed of him, displayed talent 
and enlarged views, and for some little time his pa- 
triotism was estimated by his success. But while he 
was stopping the march of the enemy, Paris was still 
the theatre of disturbance and confusion. The mas- 
sacres had familiarized the murderers with blood, and 
they were bent on spilling more. 

In the prisons at Orleans were a number of men 
confined on the charge of high treason. Some hun- 
dreds of assassins had already set out with the avowed 
purpose of taking them out of these prisons, and the 
Assembly, to save them, had decreed that they should 
be removed to Saumur ; but their destination was 
changed by the way, and they were brought towards 
Paris, via Versailles, where the band of murderers re- 
paired to await them. As soon as the prisoners 
reached the grand square at Versailles, ten or twelve 
men laid hold of the reins of the horses in the first 
carriage, crying out.—" Off with their heads !" There 
were a few curious spectators in the streets, but the 
whole escort was under arms. The murderers crowd- 
ed round the carriages, separating them from the es- 
cort, knocked Founier, the commandant, from his 
horse, and beset the carriages. The mayor of Ver- 
sailles interposed, haranguing the assassins, but in 
vain ; in vain did he get upon the carriage, and use 
efforts to guard and cover with his own person the 
two first of the prisoners who were killed. The assas- 
sins, masters of the field of slaughter, killed, one after 
another, forty-seven out of the fifty-three prisoners, 
and the butchery lasted at least an hour and a quarter. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 151 

The dead bodies experienced the same indignities as 
those of the persons who had been massacred at the 
Abbaye and the other prisons of Paris. Their heads 
and limbs were cut off, and fixed upon the iron rails 
round the palace of Versailles. This was on the 9th 
of September. Among the victims was the virtuous 
and enlightened Larochefoucault, slain in the arms of 
his wife and mother. v 

A tragedy like this, committed so soon after the other 
murders, increased the terror which already prevailed. 
Marat continued to denounce, and the committee of 
surveillance did not abate its activity ; the aristocrats 
were everywhere hunted from their hiding-places. 
The plunder arising from the property of the many 
victims at this crisis, procured immense wealth to the 
municipality, and to several of the leaders. Danton, 
at this period, had the hardihood, says Madame Ro- 
land, to avow a fortune of 1,400,000 livres, and he 
wallowed in luxury, she adds, while preaching sans- 
culottism, and sleeping on heaps of slaughtered men. 
He, Marat, and Robespierre, were now in complete 
possession of the municipality, which was filled with 
their adherents exclusively, and they held the As- 
sembly as absolutely under their control, as the As- 
sembly formerly had held the King. The safety of 
Paris was thus abandoned to chance, and the popu- 
lace had full scope to do what they pleased. Among 
the spoils of royalty, the most valuable, and conse- 
quently the most coveted, were those kept at the 
Garde Meuble, or jewel-office, in the Tuilleries, the 
rich depot of the effects that formerly contributed to 
the splendor of the throne. This, ever since the 10th 
of August, had excited the cupidity of the mob, and 
more than one attempt to break into it had sharpened 
the vigilance of the inspector of the establishment. 
On the night of the 16th of September it was pillaged 
of all its precious stones and valuables, the ornaments 
of the crown disappearing forever. The seals upon 
the locks were removed, but no marks of violence ap- 
peared on them, which clearly showed the abstraction 

14* 



152 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

was done by order of the municipalit)'' : * which, also, 
not only seized the plate of the churches, and all the 
movables of the emigrants, but the whole effects of 
the prisoners massacred in the prisons were put under 
sequestration, and deposited in the warehouses belong- 
ing to the committee of surveillance. They sold, of 
their own authority, the furniture of all the mansions, 
on which the national sesl had been put, in conse- 
quence of the emigration of their proprietors. Plunder 
and murder went hand in hand, and the Assembly, and 
subsequently the Convention, could never obtain from 
the magistrates of the municipality, either an account 
of the amount of this plunder, or how it was disposed 
of Need we look farther for the means by which 
Danton and other demagogues were enable to " wal- 
low in luxury?" 

Such was the state of Paris while the elections for 
the National Convention were going forward, in 
which a warm interest was taken throughout France ; 
and the clubs, directed by the Jacobins at Paris, in a 
great measure controlled them. In Paris, Robespierre 
and Danton were the first elected ; after them, Ca- 
mille Desmoulins; David, the celebrated painter; 
D'Eglantine, a comic writer; Legendre; Panis; Ser- 
gent ; Billaud-Varennes ; Collot d'Herbois, an actor ; 
Robespierre, the younger ; Manuel ; the Duke of Or- 
leans, who had relinquished his titles and called 
himself Philippe Egalite ; Dussaulx; Marat; Freron, 
another journalist, and a few more obscure individuals, 
completed that famous deputation, correctly repre- 
senting the confusion and the various classes which 
were struggling in the immense capital of France. 

The Convention met on the 20th of September, 
1792. In its first sitting, it abohshed royalty and pro- 
claimed the republic. From the first opening of the 
Convention, the Girondists, or moderate party, occu- 
p ed the right, and the Jacobins the seats on the 
summit of the left, whence their designation, subse- 

* Thiers ; Alison, etc. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 153 

quently so notorious, of "The Mountain" was derived. 
A neutral body, composed of those members whose 
principles were not yet declared was called " The 
Plain." The first measure of the parties, after having 
formally established the republic, was to oppose each 
other. The Girondists were indignant at the mas- 
sacres of September, and witnessed, with horror, on 
the benches of the Convention, the men who had 
countenanced or directed them. Two, especially, of 
the members excited their horror and disgust ; Ro- 
bespierre, whom they suspected of aspiring to the 
tyranny, and Marat, who from the commencement of 
the Revolution had declared himself in his writings 
the apostle of massacre. * Each of these two were 
accused, but both, supported by the clamors of the 
rabble, triumphed over their accusers. The debates 
in the Convention upon this matter are full of interest, 
but as they are not immediately necessary to our sub- 
ject, we pass on to the trial of the King, for which 
event the public mind had been for some time past 
prepared. The room of the Jacobin club resounded 
with invectives against him; reports the most inju- 
rious to his character were spread ; and his condem- 
nation was demanded as a security for liberty. The 
popular societies of the departments addressed the 
Convention to the same effect; the sections pre- 
sented themselves at the bar of that assembly, and 
me» who had been wounded on the 10th of August, 
were marched into the midst of the members, crying 
for vengeance on Louis Capet, his family name being 
now substituted for his royal title. Mobs frequently 
collected before the Temple, with insulting and threat- 
ening language. In the hall of the Jacobins, two por- 
traits, adorned with garlands, of Jacques Clement and 
Francis Ravaillac, were hung on the walls; and im- 
mediately below was the date of the murder which 
each had committed, with the words, "He was fortu- 
nate; he killed a king."t The sovereignty of the 

* Thiers; Alison; Mignet. 

t Henri the Third was assassinated by Jacques Clement on the 2nd 



154 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

people was the notion everywhere inculcated, and 
particularly and boldly called for by the orators at the 
Jacobin club. Such demagogues as advocated this 
cry soon acquired an ascendency, for the mob ap- 
plauded those who were loudest in the assertion. 
Fifteen hundred members usually attended the meet- 
ings of this club. Only a few lamps lighted the vast 
extent of the room ; its members appeared for the 
most part in shabby attire ; and the galleries were 
filled with the lowest of the populace. In this den of 
darkness, the meetings were opened by revolutionary 
songs, and shouts of applause greeted the levelling 
doctrines of their leaders, Danton, Marat, Robespierre, 
Billaud-Vaiennes, St. Just, and Collot d'Herbois. Here 
were prepared, or hatched, all the bloody hsts of pro- 
scription and massacre, that, by means of the affi- 
liated societies, were carried on throughout all France. 
Here came Marat, in his slovenly attire, to be greeted 
with deafening plaudits, as he laid aside his cap, and 
poured forth his denunciations of aristocracy, and 
called for its extermination by blood. Here came 
Robespierre, with his twang of the " Poor people ! the 
virtuous people !" — and the people listened to their 
Cicero, and hastened to execute whatever came re- 
commended by such honied phrases, though devised 
by the worst of men for the worst and most inhuman 
purposes.* 

The tower in which the King, or Louis Capet, was 
confined, was an ancient fortress called the Temple, 
from the Knights Templars, to whom it once belonged. 
There was in front a house, with some modern im- 
provements ; but the dwelling of Louis was the donjon 
or ancient keep, itself a huge square tower of great an- 
tiquity, consisting of four stories. Each story contained 
two or three rooms or closets ; but these apartments 
were unfurnished, affording not even comfort for an 

of August 1589. Henri the Fourth, assassinated by Francis Ravail- 
lacHthofMay 1610. 
♦ Lacretelle; Mignet; Thiers; Buzot: Alison; Scott 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 155 

ordinary family, and were quite comfortless to a family 
accustomed to the space and conveniences of a palace. 
The King's apartments were on the third story. 
There was a kitchen separated from his chamber by a 
small dark room. He usually rose at six in the 
morning. He shaved himself, and his valet, Clery, 
dressed his hair. He then went to his reading room, 
which being very small, the municipal officer on duty 
remained in the bed-chamber, with the door open, 
that he might always keep the King in sight. At nine 
o'clock, the Queen, the children, and Madame Eli- 
zabeth, went up to his chamber to breakfast. At ten, 
he and his family went down to the Queen's chamber; 
and there passed the day. He employed himself in 
educating his son, made him recite passages from 
Corneille and Racine, gave him lessons in geography, 
and exercised him in coloring maps. The Queen, 
on her part, was employed in the education of her 
daughter, and these different lessons lasted till noon, 
when, if the weather was fine, the royal family was 
conducted to the garden by four municipal officers, 
and a commander of the National Guards. At two 
o'clock dinner was served, at which time Santerre 
regularly came to the Temple, attended by two aides- 
de-camp. The King sometimes spoke to him — the 
Queen never. In the evening, the family sat round a 
table, while the Queen read to them from books of 
history, or other works proper to amuse and instruct 
the cihildren. Madame Elizabeth took the book in 
her turn, and in this manner they read till eight o'clock. 
After the dauphin had supped, Clery undressed him, 
and the Queen heard him say his prayers. At nine 
the King went to supper, and afterwards went a 
moment to the Queen's chamber, shook hands with 
her and his sister for the night, kissed his children, 
and then retired to the turret-room, where he sat 
reading till midnight Such was the manner, says 
Clery, in which the royal family daily passed the time. 
The faithful Clery, who, having escaped the attack on 
the Tuilleries in August, had returned to Paris to 



156 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

serve in misfortune those whom he had formerly served 
in the splendor of their power. Tiie King and Queen 
were frequently doomed to hear cruel remarks, and 
found, upon the walls and corridors, expressions of 
the hatred which the former government had often 
merited, but which neither Louis XVI. nor his consort 
had done anything to excite. * 

On the 3d of December, there were calls from all 
sides of the Convention for putting Louis Capet upon 
trial. Some were for condemnation without trial. 
Robespierre insisted that to admit of deliberation was 
to admit of doubt, and even of a solution favorable to 
the accused ; " and," said he, " to make the guilt of 
Louis problematical is to accuse the Parisians, the 
foederates ; in short, all the patriots who achieved the 
revolution of the 10th of August." At this crisis, too, 
the iron chest was discovered. This was a secret 
closet, in the Tuilleries, constructed by Louis XVI. in 
the wall, the door of which was iron, and hence the 
name given it. The workmen who had been employed 
to construct it, had given information of it. M. Ro- 
land secured the papers enclosed in this, containing 
all the documents relative to the communications 
which the court had held with the emigrants and dif- 
ferent members of the Assemblies, besides details of 
the negotiations between Mirabeau and the court.f 
From these papers were drawn up a declaration of 

* " One of the soldiers within wrote one day on the King's cham- 
ber door, and that, too, on the inside, ' The guillotine is permanent, 
and ready for the tyrant Louis.' The walls were frequently covered 
with the most indecent scrawls, in large letters, ' Madame Veto shall 
swing.— The little wolves must be strangled.' Under a gallows, 
with a figure hanging, were these words, ' Louis taking an air-bath,' 
and similar ribaldry."— CZer?/. 

t " In it were found a detail of all the plots and intrigues of the 
court against the revolution ; the manoeuvres of Talon, the arrange- 
ments of Mirabeau ; plots with the aristocrats to bring back the old 
government. This discovery enhanced the general fury against 
Louis XVL The bust of Mirabeau was broken in pieces at the 
Jacobin hall, and the Convention hid with a cloth that which stood 
in the hall where its sittings were held." — Mignet. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 157 

facts imputed to Louis XVI., and Tuesday, the 11th of 
December was fixed for his appearance before the bar 
of the Convention. Accordingly, on the morning of 
the 1 1 th, numerous troops surrounded the Temple, and 
the din of arms and the tramp of horses reached the 
ears of the royal prisoners. At one o'clock, Louis 
entered the mayor's carriage, which was waiting for 
him. Six hundred picked men surrounded the vehicle ; 
it was preceded by three pieces of cannon and fol- 
lowed by three more. A numerous body of cavalry, 
commanded by Santerre, formed the advance and the 
rear guard. Louis, dressed in a walnut-colored great- 
coat, sat, as the procession moved on through the 
streets, calmly conversing upon the objects that pre- 
sented themselves on the way. A great concourse of 
people witnessed the passage, in silence — there were a 
few shouts. At half-past two o'clock, amid drizzling 
weather, the carriage arrived at the Convention. 
" Louis," said Barrere, who was president, " the 
French nation accuses you ; you are about to hear the 
charges that are to be preferred against you. Louis, 
be seated." 

The charges consisted of an enumeration of the 
whole crimes of the revolution, from its commence- 
ment in 1789, all of which were laid to his account. 
His answers were brief and firm. As each article 
was read, the president paused and said, "What have 
you to answer]" Louis denied some of the facts, 
imputed others to his ministers, and constantly ap- 
pealed to the constitution, from which he declared he 
had never deviated. His replies were all very tempe- 
rate, except to the charge that he spilled the blood of 
the people on the 10th of August, when he exclaimed 
indignantly and with emphasis, " No, sir, no ; it was 
not /.'" All the papers found in the iron-doored closet 
were then shown to him, and, availing himself of a 
respectable privilege, he refused to avow part of them, 
and disputed the existence of the iron-chest. He then 
demanded copies of the accusation and of the other 
papers, and counsel to assist him in his defence. After 



158 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

which the president signified that he might retire, and 
getting in the mayor's carriage, he was conveyed back 
to the Temple, where, after traversing the same 
streets by which he had come, he arrived at half-past 
six, and the first thing he did was to ask for his fam- 
ily, from whom he was now to be separated by orders 
of the municipality, and reduced to solitary confine- 
ment. He wept, but neither wife, sister, nor children, 
was permitted to share his tears.* 

Louis chose for his counsel two men of celebrity, 
Tronchet and Malesherbes ; Deseze, an excellent law- 
yer, was afterwards added ; and on Tuesday, the 26th 
of December, he was again summoned to the bar of 
the Convention. Deseze opened his case with great 
ability. He ended with these words ; " Listen to 
History, who will say to Fame — Louis, who ascended 
the throne at the age of twenty, carried with him 
there an example of morals, of justice, and of econo- 
my ; he had no corrupting passions, and he was the 
constant friend of the people. The people desired that 
a disastrous impost should be abolished, and Louis 
abolished it ; the people asked for the destruction of 
servitudes, and Louis destroyed them ; they demanded 
reforms, he consented to them ; they wished to change 
the laws by which they were governed, he agreed to 
their wish ; they asked for liberty, and he gave it. No 
one can dispute that Louis had the glory of anticipa- 
ting the demands of the people by making these sacri- 
fices ; and yet it is in the name of this very people 
that men are now demanding — citizens, I cannot go 
on — I pause in the presence of history. Remember 
that History will judge of your judgment, and that 
her decision will be that of all ages to come." — When 
the defence was concluded, Louis himself rose, and 
spoke as follows : " You have heard my defence ; I 
will not recapitulate it. In addressing you, perhaps, 
for the last time, I declare that my conscience has 
nothing to reproach itself with, and that my defenders 

* Thiers; Mignet; Scott; Carlyle; Alison. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 159 

have told you nothing but the truth. I was never 
afraid that my conduct should be publicly examined ; 
but my heart bleeds at the accusation brought against 
me of having been the cause of the misfortunes of my 
people, and, most of all, that the calamitous events of 
the 10th of August should be attributed to me. The 
multiplied proofs I have given, in every period of my 
reign, and the manner in which I have always con- 
ducted myself, might, I had hoped, have saved me 
from such an imputation." Having said these few 
words, he withdrew with his defenders.* 

The discussion of the King's punishment now occu- 
pied the Convention until the 1 5th of January follow- 
ing ; some of the members advocating death, others 
banishment, and some imprisonment. Paris was in the 
highest state of agitation. The Jacobins were clamor- 
ous for his death, and they threatened the deputies 
even at the door of the Convention ; new popular 
excesses were looked for, and Marat, and other jour- 
nalists, kept alive an outcry against the moderate 
members of the Convention. Robespierre, St. Just, 
and others of " the Mountain," declaimed powerfully 
against Louis XVI., and their invectives were echoed 
in the hall of the Jacobins, and spread over the capital 
in placards that everywhere appeared on the walls. In 
the Palais-Royal, and in the streets, Jacobins harangued 
the populace, and Louis Capet, his treachery, his du- 
plicity, his plots against the republic, was the theme 
of the brawling demagogue ; and, though dethroned, 
and no longer any more than a private individual, he 
should suffer death, was the cry, for conspiring against 
the revolution and the republic. 

On January 15th, 1793, an extraordinary concourse 
of spectators surrounded the Convention and filled 
the galleries. The vote upon Louis Capet's punish- 
ment was to be taken. For days previously the agita- 
tion of Paris had been increasing as the awful mo- 
ment approached. Deep consternation pervaded the 

* Mignet ; Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Alison. 
15 



160 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

prisons, inasmuch as a report had got into circulation 
that the atrocities of September were to be repeated, 
and the relatives of the prisoners beset the deputies 
with siippKcations. The Jacobins, instructed by Dan- 
ton, Robespierre and Marat, who were determined to 
bring about the death of Louis by means of terror, 
alleged that conspiracies were hatching in all corners 
to save him from punishment, and to restore royalty. 
The whole sitting of the 1 5th was taken up by these 
two questions, " Is Louis Capet guilty of conspiring 
against the liberty of the nation, and attempts against 
the general safety of the state ? Shall the judgment, 
whatever it be, be referred to the sanction of the peo- 
ple ?" The third question, " What punishment shall 
be inflicted upon him 7" was reserved for the following 
day, the 16th, when the sitting drew together a still 
greater concourse than any that had preceded. The 
galleries were occupied early in the morning by the 
Jacobins. The greater part of the day was taken up 
in discussions, and as the day advanced, it was de- 
cided that the sitting should be permanent until the 
voting was over. The voting began at half-past seven 
in the evening, and lasted all night. Some voted 
merely death ; others declared themselves in favor of 
detention, and banishment after the restoration of 
peace ; whilst others again pronounced death, but with 
a restriction that they should inquire w^hether it was 
not expedient to stay the execution. Many great and 
good men mournfully inclined to the severer side, from 
an opinion of its absolute necessity to annihilate a 
dangerous enemy, and to establish an unsettled repub- 
lic. Among these must be reckoned Carnot, who, 
when called upon for his vote, gave it in these words : 
" Death ! and never did word weigh so heavily upon 
my heart !" * 

The voting continued amidst tumult. The bravoes 
of the Jacobins surrounded the hall, and were clam- 
orous against members who leaned to the side of 

* Alison. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 161 

mercy, threatening them from the galleries that if 
Louis was acquitted they would instantly go to the 
Temple and destroy him and his family, and that they 
would add to his massacre that of all who befriended 
him. Undoubtedly, among the terrified deputies, there 
were some moved by these horrible arguments, who 
conceived that, in giving a vote for Louis's life, they 
would endanger their own, without saving him.* 
Many were in dread of an insurrection, and, though 
deeply moved by the fate of Louis, they were afraid 
of the consequences of an acquittal. The mob in the 
galleries received with murmurs all votes that were 
not for death, and yelled out their threats. The depu- 
ties replied to them from the interior of the hall, and 
hence was kept up a fierce exchange of menaces and 
abusive epithets. Many resolutions were shaken by 
this fearful and ominous scene. , ;, 

A deputy whose vote excited a strong sensation, 
was the Duke of Orleans. Reduced to the necessity 
of rendering himself endurable to the Jacobins or per- 
ishing, when called upon to give his vote, he walked 
with a faltering step, and a face paler than death itself, 
to the bureau, and there pronounced these words: 
"Exclusively governed by my duty, and convinced 
that all those who have resisted the sovereignty of the 
people deserve death, my vote is for death." f 

This melancholy sitting lasted the whole night of 
the 16th, and the whole day of the 17th till seven 
o'clock in the evening. Its melancholy was mingled 
with gaiety, dissipation, and the most grotesque con- 
fusion ; instead of silence, restraint and religious awe 
which it might naturally be supposed would have per- 
vaded the scene. The farther end of the hall was 
converted into boxes, like those of a theatre, where 
ladies swallowed ices, oranges, liqueurs, and received 
the salutations of the members who came and went, 
moved about, and grouped together, as on ordinary 
occasions. The upper gallery, reserved for the people, 

* Scott t Thiers, etc. 



162 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

was during the whole trial constantly full of strangers 
of every description, drinking wine, as in a tavern. 
Bets were made as to the issue of the trial in all the 
neighboring coffee-houses. Ennui, impatience, dis- 
gust, sat in almost every countenance. The deputies 
passing and repassing to give their votes, and ren- 
dered more ghastly by the pallid lights, and who in a 
slow sepulchral voice pronounced the word death; 
others calculating if they should have time to go to 
dinner before they gave their verdict ; women prick- 
ing cards with pins in order to count the votes ; some 
of the deputies fallen asleep, and only waked up to 
give their sentence ; — all this had the appearance of a 
hideous dream rather than of reality.* 

The summing up of the votes was awaited with ex- 
traordinary impatience by the crowd which thronged 
the doors, galleries and passages. Vergniaud pre- 
sided. " Citizens," said he, " I am about to proclaim 
the result. You will observe, I hope, profound silence." 
Then, in a sorrowful tone, he declared in the name of 
the Convention, " that the pimishment it pronounces 
against Louis Capet is death /" The number of de- 
puties present were 721, and 361 had voted for death 
unconditionally.f Louis XVI.'s counsel now appeared 
at the bar, and seemed deeply moved. They endeav- 
ored to recall the Convention to sentiments of pity, in 
consideration of the small majority by which he was 
condemned. The venerable Malesherbes attempted 
to speak, but could not. His sobs stifled his voice, and 
the only words that were audible were broken and 
imploring. The Girondists attempted to procure a 
delay of the execution as a last resource ; but they 
faOed in this, combatted as they were at every step of 
their arguments by Robespierre, Danton, Barrere, 
and " the Mountain" generally; and, at three o'clock 

*Hazlitt. 

t Thiers. — ^Twenty-six voted for death, expressing a wish that the 
Convention should consider whether it might not be expedient to 
stay the execution. Their vote was nevertheless to be considered 
independent of the" latter clause. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 163 

on the morning of the 20th of January, it was decided 
by a majority of 380 voices to 310, that the execution 
of Louis Capet should take place without delay. A^nd, 
at two o'clock that afternoon, Santerre appeared with 
a deputation from the municipality, and the sentence 
of death was read to the unfortunate monarch, who 
heard it with unshaken firmness. The first decree de- 
clared Louis XVI. guilty of treason against the gene- 
ral safety of the state ; the second condemned him to 
death ; the third rejected any appeal to the people ; 
and the fourth, and last, ordered his execution in 
twenty-four hours. He, in turn, read a letter, in which 
he demanded firom the Convention a respite of three 
days to prepare for death, a confessor to assist him in 
his last moments, liberty to see his family, and per- 
mission for them to leave France, The Convention 
granted him an interview with his family, and the 
assistance of a priest, but refused the two other 
requests. 

The execution was fixed for the following morning 
at ten o'clock. A heart-rending scene was the last in- 
terview of the royal family. At half past eight that 
evening, the door of his apartment opened, and Marie 
Antoinette appeared, leading the dauphin by the hand, 
followed by the young princess and Madame Eliza- 
beth. They thronged altogether into the poor King's 
arms, weeping, sobbing, and during the first moments 
it was a scene of silent despair, broken only by the 
bursting anguish of the afflicted family. The King sat 
down, the Q,ueen on his left, the young princess on his 
right, Madame Elizabeth in front, the young dauphin 
between his knees. A glass door was between this 
and the adjoining apartment, from which the muni- 
cipal officer on guard, and the confessor, who had now 
arrived, were witnesses of what passed. The Queen, 
his daughter and sister leaned upon the poor King, 
and firequently pressed him in their arms. He con- 
tinued to speak, with their tears and lamentations in- 
terrupting his words. This terrible scene of anguish 
lasted nearly two hours. At length, Louis rose to 

15* 



164 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

put an end to the painful interview, and gave his 
blessing to them. The princesses still clasped their 
arms around him, uttering loud lamentations. "I 
assure you," said he, " that I will see you again at 
eight o'clock to-morrow morning." " Why not at 
seven ?" they all said at once. " Well — yes, at seven," 
said he. " Farewell !" — He pronounced " farewell " so 
impressively, that their sobs were renewed, and his 
daughter fainted at his feet. They raised her from the 
floor; most agonizing were now the lamentations ; he 
embraced them tenderly, one by one, and broke away 
from them, again mournfully pronouncing " Adieu ! 
adieu !" The princesses and the dauphin, returned to 
their own apartments, and their screams and lamenta- 
tions were long continued. 

Abbe Edgeworth, the confessor, was now admitted 
to the King, and remained with him until twelve o'clock 
that night, during which time it had been arranged be- 
tween him and the priest that mass should be said on 
the following morning if the municipality would con- 
sent to it. Word was sent from the Temple to the 
municipality, who complied with the request, and ap- 
plication was made to a neighboring church for the 
necessary ornaments. At about midnight Louis re- 
tired to rest, having made up his mind not to see his 
family in the morning, and desiring Clery, his A'-alet, to 
call him at five o'clock; at the same time, "Give this 
ring to the Q,ueen," said he, " and tell her with what 
regret I leave her ; give her also this locket, contain- 
ing the hair of my children ; give this seal to the dau- 
phin ; and tell them all what I shall suffer without re- 
ceiving their last embraces, but I wish to spare them 
the pain of so cruel a separation." The Abbe Edg- 
worth threw himself upon a bed, and Clery took his 
place near the pillow of his master, watching the 
peaceful slumber into which the latter sunk even upon 
the night before he was to ascend the scaffold. * 

Meanwhile a few ardent minds were in a ferment 

* Thiers ; Clery ; Lacretelle. 



THE REIGN OP. TERROR. 165 

here and there, while the great mass, either indifferent 
or awe-struck, remained immoveable. A young man, 
who had formerly been one of the King's life-guard, 
resolved to avenge the fate of Louis XVI. upon one of 
his judges. Lepelletier St. Fargeau, one of the deputies, 
was of noble birth and his fortune was immense. Like 
many others of his rank, he voted for death, in order 
to throw the veil of oblivion over his birth and fortune. 
He had excited the more indignation of the loyalists, 
on account of the class to which he belonged. On the 
evening of the 20th he was pointed out to the guards- 
man, as he was just sitting down at a table to dine in 
a restaurateur's in the Palais-Royal. The young man, 
wrapped in a cloak, stepped. up to him, and said, "Are 
you Lepelletier, the villain who voted for the death of 
the King "?" — " Yes," replied the deputy, " but I am not 
a villain; I voted according to my conscience." — 
" There, then," rejoined the guardsman, " take that for 
your reward;" plunging a sword into his side. Le-' 
pelletier fell, and the young man escaped before the 
persons present had time to secure him. Lepelletier ex- 
pired in a few moments.* 

Next morning, the 21st of January, 1793, the clock 
of the Temple struck five, upon hearing which, Clery 
rose from his chair, and began to light a fire. The 
noise he made awoke the King, who, drawing his cur- 
tains, inquired if the hour had struck. Clery answered 
that it had by several clocks, but not yet by that in the 
apartment. Having finished with the fire, Clery ap- 
proached his master's bedside. " I have slept soundly," 
said the King, " and I stood in need of it ; yesterday 
was a trying day to me. Where is M. Edgeworth V 
Clery answered, " On my bed." — " And where were 
you all night V — " On this chair." — " I am sorry for 
it," said the King, and he gave his hand to his faithful 
valet, tenderly pressing it. 

I then commenced dressing his majesty, says Clery's 
narrative, who, as soon as he was dressed, bade me go 

* Thiers. 



166 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

and call M. Edgeworth, whom I found already risen. 
Meanwhile I placed a chest of drawers in the middle 
of the chamber, and arranged it in the form of an altar 
for saying mass. The necessary ornaments for the 
service had been brought at two o'clock in the morn- 
ing. When everything was ready, I informed his ma- 
jesty. He had a book in his hand, which he opened, 
and finding the place of the mass, gave it me; he then 
took another book for himself The priest, meanwhile, 
was dressing. Before the altar I placed an arm-chair 
for his majesty, with a large cushion on the floor. The 
priest came in, and the mass began at six o'clock. 
There was profound silence during the ceremony. 
The King, all the time on his knees, heard mass with 
the most devout attention, and received the commu- 
nion.* 

As the service was concluding, the rolling of drums 
and agitation in the streets announced the prepara- 
tions for the execution. All the troops in Paris had 
been under arms from five o'clock in the morning. 
The beat of drums, the sound of trumpets, the clash 
of arms, the trampling of horses — all resounded in 
the Temple. At half past eight the noise increased ; 
the doors were thrown open with great clatter, and 
Santerre, accompanied by seven or eight municipal 
officers, entered. "You are come forme?" said the 
King. — " Yes," was the answer. — "• Lead on," said the 
King.f A carriage waited ; on the front seat, inside 
of it, two officers of gendarmerie were seated, with 
orders to despatch the King, if the carriage should be 

* Clery. 

t " In the course of the morning, the King said to me. ' Tell the 
Queen, my dear sister, and my children, that, although [ promised to 
see them again this morning, I have resolved to spare them the trial. 
He wiped away some tears, and then added in the most mournful 
accents, ' I charge you to bear them my last farewell.' — I was stand- 
ing behind the King at the fire-place. I offered him his great-coat. 
' I shall not want it,' said he ; 'give me only my hat.' I presented it 
to him, and his hand met mine, which he pressed for the last time. 
His majesty then looked at Santerre and said, ' Lead on.' " — Clery. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 167 

attacked, rumours having spread that four or five 
hundred devoted men contemplated rescuing him. 
The King entered, followed by the Abbe Edgeworth, 
and during the slow progress of the vehicle he read 
from a breviary the prayers for persons at the point 
of death. 

All persons not called by any obligation to figure on 
that day kept close at home. Windows and doors 
were shut up in the streets through which the carriage 
passed, and people waited within doors the melancholy 
event. Two men in arms, it is said, followed the train, 
going into all the coffee-houses and public-places, and 
asking boldly if there were still any loyal subjects left 
ready to die for their King ! But such was the uni- 
versal terror that nobody joined them, and they ar- 
rived without any increase of their party at the place 
of execution, where they slipped off in the crowd. It 
is also a fact that some timid people well affected to 
Louis had formed an association of eighteen hundred 
persons, who were to cry out ' Pardon ' before the exe- 
cution ; but of these only one man had the courage to 
do so, and he was instantly torn to pieces by the mob 
which surrounded the scaffold. 

The carriage advanced slowly, surrounded by a 
large body of soldiers, and at ten minutes past ten, 
arrived at the place of execution, where were planted 
cannon, with the Marseillais, and a violent mixture of 
Jacobins and rabble, stationed about the scaffold, 
manifesting even at that moment their satisfaction. 
On quitting the vehicle, three guards surrounded his 
majesty, as he mounted the steps of the scaffold, and 
would have taken off his clothes, but he repulsed them 
with haughtiness, untying his neckcloth, opening his 
shirt, andarranging his throat for the axe of the guil- 
lotine himself He next stripped off his coat, and 
" stands disclosed in a sleeve-waistcoat of white flan- 
nel, breeches of grey, white stockings." * When they 

* " Far around all bristles with cannons and armed men ; specta- 
tors crowding in the rear ; d'Orleans Egalite there in a cabriolet" 
Carlyle. 



168 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

began to bind his hands he resisted with an expression 
of indignation. " Suffer this outrage," said the Abbe 
Edgeworth to him — " suffer it as the last resemblance 
to that Saviour who is about to be your recompense." 
At these words, the victim, resigned and submissive, 
permitted himself to be bound and conducted to the 
block. Suddenly he separated himself from the exe- 
cutioners, stepped to the edge of the scaffold, and 
exclaimed, " Frenchmen, I die innocent of the crimes 
imputed to me; I forgive the authors of my death, 
and I pray that my blood may not fall upon France." 
He would have continued, but Santerre ordered the 
drums to beat.* " Executioners, do your duty," cried 
out the rabble. He was seized and pressed down to 
the block, the Abbe Edgeworth exclaiming, " Son of 
St. Louis, ascend to Heaven !" as the axe fell. 

As soon as the blood flowed, furious wretches dipped 
their pikes and handkerchiefs in it, spread themselves 
throughout Paris, shouting " Vive la Republique ! Vive 
la nation !" and even went to the gates of the Temple 
to display to its unfortunate captives a brutal exulta- 
tion at the death of their unfortunate relative. One of 
the executioners seized the head, and waved it in the 
air to the shouts of the mob, the blood sprinkling the 
priest who was still on his knees beside the lifeless 
body. Others tasted the blood, and the brutal remark 
passed around that it was " shockingly bitter." The 
body was removed to the ancient cemetery of the 
Madeleine ; large quantities of quicklime were thrown 
into the grave with it, which occasioned so rapid a 
decomposition, that when his remains were sought 
after in 1815, it was with great difficulty that any part 
could be recovered.! " And so, in some half hour it is 

* "He was proceeding, when a man on horseback in the national 
uniform, waved his sword, and ordered the drums to beat. Many 
voices were at the same time heard encouraging the executfioners, 
who immediately seized the King with violence, and dragged him 
under the axe of the guillotine, which with one stroke severed his 
head from his body." — AIM Edgeworth. 

t Clery; Thiers; Peltier; Edgeworth. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 169 

done ; D'Orleans drives off in his cabriolet, and the 
multitude has all departed. Pastry-cooks, coffee-sel- 
lels, milkmen, sing out their trivial quotidian cries ; the 
world wags on, as if this were a common day. In 
the coffee-houses tliat evening, says Priidhpmme, pa- 
triot shook hands with patriot in a more cordial man- 
ner than usual. Not till some days after, says Mer- 
cier, did public men see what a grave thing it was."* 

Thus perished, at the age of thirty-nine, the best but 
weakest of monarchs. He inherited the revolution 
from his ancestors. His qualities were better fitted 
than any of his predecessors to have prevented or 
terminated it ; for he was capable of being a reformer 
before it broke out, and of being a constitutional mo- 
narch under its influence. He Was perhaps the only 
prince, who, destitute of passion, had not even the love 
of power; and who united the two qualities most es- 
sential to a good monarch, fear of God and love of his 
people. He perished, the victim of passions which he 
had no share in exciting. There are few kings who 
have left so venerated a memory ; and history will say 
of him, that with a little more strength of mind, he 
would have been a pattern to monarchs.f 

The execution was over at half past ten, but the 
shops continued shut. Groups of assassins were to 
be seen, singing revolutionary songs, the same aS 
those which preceded the massacres of September.' 
Their voices reached the Temple, and the Queen, with 
her orphan son, fell on their knees, and prayed that 
they might soon join the martyr in the regions of 
Heaven. J 

Louis XVI.'s death rendered the Jacobins triumph- 
ant, and multiplied the external enemies of the repub- 
lic. England and Spain declared war against her. 
"The coalised kings threaten us," exclaimed Danton 
in debate; "we hurl at their feet, as gage of battle, 
the head of a king !" Robespierre and " the Mountain''. 
party in the Convention, nOw were victorious over 

* Carlyle. t Migiiet. , t Aliso.n. 



170 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the Girondists, or moderate deputies, whose humanity 
and spirit of justice were unavailing, and they were 
accused of being enemies to the people, because they 
raised their voices against bloodshed and the- horrible 
excesses that daily were committed. Because they 
had endeavoured to save the life of Louis XVL, the 
Jacobins denounced them as being accomplices of the 
tyrant, and, because they recommended moderation, 
with betraying the republic. 

The influence of Marat over the mob was at this time 
incalculable ; and the difficulty of procuring subsist- 
ence, together with the total stagnation of commerce, in- 
creasing to an alarming degree during the months of 
February and March, he stirred up the populace to 
pillage the merchants, whom he accused of attempting 
to forestal provisions. " In every country," said he, 
" where the rights of the people are not a vain title, 
the pillage of a few shops, at the doors of which they 
hung their forestalling owners, would put an end to 
an evil which reduces five millions of men to despair, 
and daily causes thousands to die of famine. When 
will the deputies of the people learn to act, instead of 
eternally haranguing on evils they know not how to 
remedy !" He attacked in the most violent manner, 
both in his journal and at the Jacobin meetings, the 
aristocracy of the middle classes, the traders, and the 
statesmen, as he styled the Girondists ; in a word, all 
who, whether in public or in the Convention, opposed- 
the dominion of the Sans-culottes and the Mountain. 

Encouraged by those exhortations, the mob pillaged 
the shops, and rioted through the streets, flourishing 
their pikes, and yelling forth their revolutionary songs. 
All was terror and anarchy in the city. Popular fury 
was particularly directed against the Girondists, and 
all their efforts in the Convention to restore order 
were drowned in the cries and hisses of the multitude 
in the galleries. The quarrel became daily more and 
more violent. The parties openly threatened each 
other. Many of the deputies never went abroad with- 
out arms, and sat in the legislative halls with daggers 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 171 

and pistols upon their persons. Robespierre, Danton 
and Marat, preached destruction to aristocrats and 
counter-revolutionists, and on the 10th of March, they 
succeeded in passing a decree for the establishment 
of the Committee of Public Safety, of which the noto- 
rious Pouquier Tinville was made public accuser. 
Justice, in his eyes, consisted in condemning; an ac- 
quittal was the source of profound vexation ; he was 
only happy when he secured the conviction of all 
accused. He required no species of recreation; 
women, the pleasures of the table, of the theatre,, were 
alike indifferent to him. He was seldom to be seen at 
the clubs or any public meeting ; the Revolutionary 
Tribunal was the theatre of all his exertions, and his 
joy the extermination of aristocrats. Marat, Robes- 
pierre, and others denounced, and Pouquier Tinville 
sentenced. Men were daily perishing ; the guillotine 
was permanent. Day and night Tinville sat in judg- 
ment; his power of undergoing fatigue was unbound- 
ed. The sole recreation he permitted himself was 
jiow and then to witness the executions. * 
(;ilt was now indeed the Reign of Terror! The 
Girondins strove to arrest these barbarities, but the 
Mountain asserted they were necessary to strike 
terror to the enemies of the republic, to root aristoc- 
racy from the soil, and keep the revolutionary wheel 
in motion. The downfall of the Girondins was the 
determination of the Jacobins, and they put matters in 
such a train that on the 31st of May, the tOcsin sound- 
ed and the faubourg St. Antoine was in movement,|with 
the purpose of plundering the rich shopkeepers of the 
Palais Royal, and afterwards marching to the Con- 
vention, there by force to expel the Girondins from 
the legislative hall. But at the Palais Royal they 
found the gates shut, and artillery placed in the 
avenues which led to them, — deterred by which, the 
wave of insurrection rolled aside to the more defence- 
less quarter of the Convention. 

* Mignet,- Alison. 
16 



172 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

Tne Girondins, notwithstanding the earnest en- 
treaties of their friends, repaired to the post of danger; 
having passed the night at the house of a common 
friend, assembled together armed, and resolved to sell 
their lives dearly. It was the intention of the mob to 
rush upon them, and to drag them from the benches 
of the Convention, but this part of their design they 
did not put into effect, though they used very me- 
nacing gestures from the galleries and offensive 
language. At the meeting of the Jacobin club that 
night, it was complained that the day had gone with- 
out producing any result. Next day, the 1st of June, 
tranquillity was far from being restored; the arrest 
of the odious Girondins was loudly called for—mobs 
paraded the streets, singing significant songs, shout- 
ing, and crying " Perish the Girondins !" — and it was 
expected new scenes would mark the morrow, the 
2nd of June. At dusk, people thronged to the coffee- 
houses, talked in excitement, denounced the Girond- 
ins, and, in the Palais Royal, and all the public places, 
they grouped together in great crowds, listening to 
the inflammatory harangues of different demagogues; 
All was excitement, none thought of retiring to their 
beds, and sometime after midnight, Marat himself 
rushed to the bell of the Hotel-de-Ville and started the 
tocsin,, which was quickly answered from bell to bell ; 
the generale was beat throughout the remainder of the 
night, and at daybreak, on Sunday the 2nd, all th6 
suburbs were in motion, and an irnmehse mass as- 
sembled upon the Place de Greve, the command of 
which was assumed by Henriot, a vulgar man, de- 
voted to the municipality, and popular among the 
sans-culottes. 

In order to ensure the concurrence of the faubourgs 
in all its measures, and keep them under arms in 
these moments of agitation, the municipality had 
passed a law that forty, sous per day, should be paid 
to all the citizens upon duty from the produce of a 
forced loan extorted from the rich by a recent decree 
of the Convention. 



THfT ' ftEIGN OF T3ERRGR. 1 73 

The forces assembled on this occasion were most 
formidable — one hundred and sixty pieces of cannon, 
with tumbrils, wargons of balls, furnaces to heat them 
red hot, lighted matches, and drawn swOrds in the 
hands of the gunners, — the whole resembled rather 
the preparations for the siege of a powerful fortress 
than merely demonstrations against a pacific legisla- 
ture. Plots existed, was the cry, and that they had been 
discovered, that the leaders were in the Convention, 
and. that they must be torn from its bosom. Henriot 
declared, in the name of the insurgent people, that 
they would not lay down their arms till they had ob- 
tained the arrest of these obnoxious deputies. 

By ten o'clock the whole avenues to the Tuilleries 
(now the ISfational Palace, and where the Convention 
held its sittings) were blockaded by dense columns 
and artillery : and eighty thousand armed men, sur- 
rounded ' the defenceless representatives, ready to 
commit any a.ct of violence against them. The de- 
puties of every side had repaired to the sitting. The 
Mountain, the Plain, and the right side, occupied their 
benches ; the larger part of the proscribed deputies 
kept away, but some had come to brave the storm. 
The • intrepid Lanjuinais mounted the tribune. " I 
demand leave to ask why the generale is now beating 
in every part of Paris'?" he exclaimed. He was 
interrupted by cries of " Down ! down ! He wants a 
civil war! He wants the counter-revolution! He 
calumniates Paris ! He insults the people !" In spite 
of menaces from the Mountain, and fi^om the Jacobin 
rabble in the galleries, Lanjuinais continued ; his 
courage rose with his danger; he denounced the pro- 
jects of Robespierre, Dahton, Marat, Billaud-Varennes, 
and others, as that of tyrants who were seeking blood 
and dominion. At this, several of the Mountaihists, 
Drouet, Robespierre the younger, Julien, and\ Le- 
gendre, rushed to the, tribune, and endeavoured to 
drag him 'from it, but he clung tQ..it:j,jG9ntinuihg to 
denounce his enemies. ',, .' , ^ , .^ i r^ .' ; ■ ' , r i 

Air tlie parts of the Convention were agitated,- and 



IT4 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the howls of the galleries continued to render it a 
frightful scene. A great noise was heard without, 
together with repeated cries of " To arms ! to arms !" 
and petitioners entered the hall, demanding the arrest 
of twenty-two Girondins, with also a threat that if it was 
not complied with, the people would take the matter 
into their own hands. Lanjuinais again spoke, and 
represented the baseness, treachery, cruelty, and im- 
policy, of thus surrendering to the demand of a blood- 
thirsty multitude from without. He spoke with such 
effect, that the Convention resolved to go out in a 
body, and ascertain what respect would be paid to 
their persons by the armed force assembled round 
them. They sallied forth accordingly, in procession, 
with their president at their head ; but their progress 
was presently arrested by Henriot on horseback. 
The president demanded of him to open a passage. 
" You shall not leave this place," said Henriot, " till 
you have delivered up the twenty-two conspirators."— 
" Seize this rebel," said the president to the soldiers. 
Henriot reined back his horse, and turned to his gun- 
ners. "Gunners, to your pieces!" said he. Two 
cannons were immediately pointed at the Convention, 
Who drew back, and re-entered their hall in conster- 
nation, amid the chucklings and sneers of the Moun- 
tain party. " The nation forever ! Down with the 
Girondins! Marat forever!" were the cries of the 
multitude, amongst which Marat went up and down, 
encouraging them to be firm in their demand for the 
arrest oT the obnoxious deputies — the conspirators 
against liberty — the friends of the aristocrats ! " No 
weakness," said he, " and quit not your posts till these 
men shall have been given up." 

The Convention, overwhelmed with a sense of its 
own impotence, now suffered a decree to be passed 
by the Mountain party for the detention of the Girond- 
ins in their own houses, and under the safeguard of 
the people. With the dagger at their throats, as it 
were, the Convention passed the decree. A large 
body had the courage to protest against this violence, 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 175 

and refuse to vote. The suicidal measure was carried 
by the sole vote of the Mountain and a few adherents; 
the great majority refusing to have any share in it. 
The multitude gave tumultuous cheers and dispersed. 

So fell the party of the Gironde, a party illustrious 
for the great talents and courage of its members ; a 
party which did honor to the rising repubhc by its 
horror of blood, its hatred of crime, its dread of anarchy, 
its love of order, of justice, and liberty ; a party which 
was unfortunately placed between the middle classes, 
whose revolution it had upheld, and the multitude, 
whose dominion it rejected. Thus were the Jacobins 
triumphant, and their leaders had no longer any ob- 
stacles to encounter, carrying forward their work of 
desolation, until finally the ambition of each other 
brought them into collision, and they nearly all fell 
beneath the axe of the guillotine. * 

Their proceedings, after the overthrow of the Gi- 
rondins, excited violent opposition throughout the 
provinces of France, who were justly incensed at 
this expulsion of their deputies from the legislation, 
and saw that instead of maintaining a republic, the 
commonwealth would be plunged into anarchy by the 
Jacobin leaders. Bitter indignation was felt in differ- 
ent departments against Robespierre, Danton and 
Marat. Clubs of Jacobins throughout the country 
imitated the conduct of the mother society in Paris,— r 
commissioners from the latter arrived in all the prin|- 
cipal cities ; they denounced the aristocrats and 
enemies of the republic; brought heads beneath the 
guillotine and confiscated property ; a general war 
was made upon the rich, who sought safety b)?- flying 
into foreign countries ; and from one end of France to 
the other, brigands and revolutionary banditti tra- 
versed the country, spreading fright and horror, and 
universal was the Reign of Terror. 

Bordeaux, Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyons, now de- 
clared themselves against the Jacobin supremacy, and 

* Toulangeon ; Thiers ; Mignet ; Scott ; Alison, etc. 



iZ6 THE PwEIGN OP TERROR. 

the detestation of Marat, Robespierre and Danton 
was a sentiment universal to the feelings of the friends 
of humanity. This feehng amounted to heroism in 
the breast of a young lady, who arrived ht Paris on 
the 12th of July, 1793, from Caen in Normandy, 
Alone, and without communicating her departure to 
her relatives, she had taken her seat in the diligence 
at Caen and come to the French metropolis. At the 
Inn de la Providence in the Rue des Vieux Augustins, 
she alighted, asked for a room, hastened to bed, 
fatigaed with a journey of three days, and slept all the 
afternoon and night until the following morning, July 
the 13th. Her name was Charlotte Corday. Nature had 
bestowed on her beauty, wit, feeling, and a masculine 
understanding. She was an enthusiast for the cause 
of the revolution, like many other women of her 
time ; and, like Madame Roland, she was intoxicated 
with the idea of a republic submissive to the laws, 
and fertile in virtues. The Girondins were her favo- 
rite orators, and realized her notions of what the 
republic should be. After their expulsion from the 
Convention, Barbaroux and others of them arrived at 
Caen ; with these she had an interview, and was in- 
spired with the greatest indignation against the Jaco- 
bin leaders ; and the provinces having at the same 
time risen in opposition to them, she conceived that the 
death of Marat would insure victory to the moderate 
party and put an end to the Reign of Terror. With 
this thought she had repaired to Paris. 
" Marat at this time was ill, and kept within d«)ors, 
spending a considerable part of the day in a bath, 
agreeable to medical advice. But nothing could di- 
minish his restless activity. While in his bath, he had 
pens and paper beside him, writing, constantly engaged 
upon his journal, and addressing letters to the Conven- 
tion, denouncing aristocrats and anticipating popular 
apprehensions. It had been the intention of Charlotte 
Corday, to poniard him in his seat upon the benches of 
the legislative hall, and surrounded by his party ; this 
she could not now do, and was consequently obliged 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 177 

to seek him at his own home. She made inquiries, 
ascertained where his residence was, repaired to the 
Palais-Royal-, bought a knife, hired a coach, and drove 
to his house. No. 44, in the Rue de I'Ecole de Medecine, 
but was not allowed to see him. She returned to her 
lodgings, and wrote the following note to him : " Citi- 
zen, I have just arrived from Caen; your love of your 
country inclines me to suppose you will listen with 
pleasure to the secret events of that part of the repub- 
lic. I will present myself at your house ; have the 
goodness to give orders for my admission, and grant 
me a moment's private conversation. I can point out 
means by which you may render an important service 
to France." 

At eight o'clock, on the evening of Saturday, the 
13th of July, she again called upon Marat. His house- 
keeper, a young woman with whom' he cohabited, 
made some difficulties, inasmuch as Marat was then in 
his bath. He, hearing the altercation, and aware of 
whom it was by Charlotte mentioning her name, and 
interested by the note she had written to him, directed 
that she should be admitted to his presence. Being left 
alone with him, Marat eagerly inquired the names of 
the deputies at Caen. She mentioned them, and he, 
snatching up a pencil, began to write them down, 
adding " Very good ; they shall all go to the guillotine." 
— " To the guillotine !" repeated "Charlotte. — ^" Yes," 
replied he, " they shall soon meet with the punishment 
they deserve." — " Yours is at hand !" exclaimed she, 
snatching the knife from her bosom and plunging it 
below his left breast to his heart. "Help!, help, my 
dear!" he cried to his housekeeper, who iran at his 
call, and found him covered with blood ; at the same 
moment a man, who was folding newspapers in 
another apartment, rushed also to his assistance. 
Charlotte stood calm and serene. The man knocked 
her down with a chair ; the housekeeper trampled 
upon her. The tumult attracted a crowd, and pre^ 
sently the whole quarter was in an uproar. Charlotte 
rose, and bore with dignity the rage and ill-usage of 



I^-S THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

those around her. Officers came to secure her ; she 
quietly submitted, and was conducted to prison. 

On the following Wednesday, she was brought 
before the Revolutionary Tribunal. The cutler of the 
Palais-Royal was there to testify that he sold her the 
sheath-knife ; but Charlotte interrupted these proceed- 
ings, saying they were needless, and boldly said, " It 
was I who killed Marat!" — "By whose instigation?" 
asked Fouquier-Tinville. " By no one's," she replied. 
" What tempted you then 3" — " His crimes !" — " What 
do you mean by his crimes'?" — " The calamities which 
he has occasioned ever since the revolution. I long 
ago resolved his death — I was anxious to give peace to 
my country." — " And do you think you have killed all 
the Marats 1" — " No," she answered sorrowfully-"no !" 
She went on to confess everything with unshaken 
assurance, and her advocate briefly summed up in 
these words : " This composure, this self-denial, sub- 
lime in one respect, can only be accounted for by the 
most exalted political fanaticism. It is for you to judge 
what weight this moral consideration ought to have 
in the balance of justice." 

She was condemned to the penalty of death. Her 
beautiful face betrayed no depression at this sentence, 
but radiant smiles played upon her countenance. She 
handed Fouquier-Tinville a letter for her father, in 
which she said, " Pardon me, my dear father, for hav- 
ing disposed of my life without your permission. I 
have avenged many victims, prevented others. The 
people will one day acknowledge the service I have 
rendered my country. Farewell, my beloved father ; 
forget me, or rather rejoice at my fate ; it has sprung 
from a noble cause. Embrace my sister for me, whom 
I love with all my heart, as well as all my relations. 
Never forget the words of Corneille, ' The crime 
makes the shame, and not the scaifold.' " 

That same evening she was put on the cart, and led 
out to execution. Seated in the tumbril, dressed in 
the red smock of a murderess, she gazed with serenity 
upon the . crowd that lined the streets through which 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 179 

the cart slowly rumbled along, smiling at the abuse 
and execration of the many voices that assailed her. 
All, however, did not abuse her ; many deplored a 
victim, so young, so beautiful, so disinterested in her 
deed, and accompanied her to the scaffold with looks 
of pity and admiration. Her appearance was that of 
a lovely female, bearing with meekness and inward 
satisfaction a triumphal fete of which she was the 
object. At the scaffold, her face wore the same still 
smile. The executioners proceeded to bind her feet ; 
she resisted, thinking it meant as an insult ; but, on a 
word of explanation, submitted with a cheerful 
apology. The handkerchief, that covered her bosom, 
being removed, a blush of maidenly shame suffused 
her cheeks ; with which glow her cheeks were still 
tinged when the axe had fallen, and the executioner 
held up the head to the gaze of the crowd. She 
perished at the age of twenty-five.* 

After Marat's death, honors, almost divine, were de- 
creed to him. Triumphal arches and mausoleums 
were erected to him ; in the Place du Carrousel a sort 
of pyramid was raised in celebration of him, within 
which were placed his bust, his bathing tub, his writing 
desk, and his lamp. The honors of the Pantheon were 
decreed him, and poets celebrated him on the stage 
and in their works. In the Convention, Robespierre 
pronounced an eloquent eulogium on his virtues. " If 
I speak to-day," said he, " it is because I am bound to 
do so. Poniards await the patriots — they await me, 
and it is but the effect of chance that Marat has been 
struck before me," he exclaimed in the course of his 
eulogium. He opposed, however, the extraordinary 
pomp that was got up upon the occasion. " The best 
way of avenging Marat," said he, " is to prosecute his 
enemies without mercy. The vengeance which seeks 
to satisfy itself by empty pomp is soon appeased, and 
forgets to employ itself in a more real and more useful 



DuBroca; Lacretelle; Mignet ; Thiers ; Carlyle. 



180 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

manner. Avenge, then, Marat in a manner more 
worthy of him !" 

The' body of Marat was exhibited in pubhc for 
several days. It was micovered, and the wound which 
he had received was exposed to view. The Jacobins, 
the CordeUers, all the popular societies, and the differ- 
ent sections of the city, came in procession, and 
strewed flowers upon his coffin. Young girls, with 
flowers, constantly surrounded his corpse. The pre- 
sident of each society, and of each section, spoke over 
the corpse. " He is dead !" exclaimed one of the pre- 
sidents—" the Friend of the People is dead ! He died 
by the hand of the assassin ! Let us not pronounce^ 
his panegyric over his inanimate remains ! His eulogy 
is his conduct, his writings, his ghastly wound, his 
death ! Fair citoyennes, strew flowers on the pale 
corpse of Marat ! Marat was our friend, the friend oft 
the people ; for the people he lived, for the people he 
has died !" At these words, young females walked 
round the coffin, throwing flowers upon the body. 
" But enough of lamentation," resumed the speaker. 
" Listen, to the great soul of Marat, which awakes 
and says to you, ' Republicans, put an end to your 
tears ; Republicans should shed but one tear, and then 
devote themselves to their country; it was not me 
whom they wished to assassinate, but the republic ; it 
is not me whom you must avenge — it is the republic, 
the people, yourselves !" The body, attended by a 
vast concourse, was conveyed to the garden of the 
Cordeliers' Club, where it was to be buried under the 
very trees, at the foot of which he was accustomed in 
the evening to read his paper to the people. The pro- 
cession lasted from six in the evening till midnight ; it 
had nothing in it but what was simple and patriotic, 
and the quiet grief with which the whole mass moved 
was at once impressive and sublime. At the garden 
of the Cordeliers, the coffin was sat down under the 
trees, and the people surrounded it in silence. Several 
brief orations were delivered over the body, which 
was then deposited in the grave. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 181 

The heart of Marat, for which several societies con- 
tended to have possession of, was left with the Corde- 
liers. His bust circulated everywhere, and figured in 
all the assemblies, and public places. The seals put 
upon his effects were removed. Nothing was found 
in his possession but a five-franc assignat, and his 
poverty afforded a fresh theme for admiration. His 
housekeeper was called his widow, and maintained at 
the expense of the state. 



182 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Flight of Dumouriez — escape of the Girondins — revolt in the pro- 
vinces — terrible slaughter of the Vendeans — Carrier at Nantes^ 
his barbarous executions — great numbers in the prisons — the Re- 
pubUcan baptisms, the RepubUcan marriages — drowning in boats — 
the river clogged up with dead bodies — massacre of children — 
Madame de Bonchamps. — Madame de Jourdain, and her daugh- 
ters. — Mademoiselle Cuissan. — Madame de la Roche St. Andre. — 
Agatha Larochejaquelain — her remarkable danger and escape. 
Executions and horrors at Lyons — CoUot d'Herbois and Couthon 
— destruction of property — houses razed to the ground — Death pro- 
claimed an eternal sleep — impious procession, and burning of the 
Bible, the Cross, and the communion vases.— Great numbers shot 
at Lyons — the fusillades — extermination of aristocrats. Fouche 
and the Jacobins at dinner. Bodies floating down the Rhone — 
thirty-one thousand persons perish. Atrocities at Bordeaux, Mar- 
seilles, and Toulon. — Freron — Executions at Arras and towns in 
the north of France — Joseph Lebon — his cruelty — his orgies — his 
travelling tribunal and guillotine — his hatred of the aristocrats — 
his sanguinary oppression, etc. Robespierre — Danton. The pri- 
sons of Paris become filled with rank and beauty — description of 
how the prisoners passed their time — Fouquier-Tinville — daily exe- 
cutions. The gardens of the Luxembourg — wives of the prisoners. 
The Conceirgerie — the wife of a prisoner dashes out her brains. 
The theatres, and places of amusement. Papers and pamphlets 
published against the aristocrats. The Convention — the clubs. 
Violent outcry of the Jacobins against Marie Antoinette — against 
the Girondins — against the Duke of Orleans. — J. R. Hebert— his 
abuse of Marie Antoinette — she is separated from her son, and re- 
moved from the Temple to the Conciergerie. Simon, a shoemaker, 
placed over the dauphin — his inhuman treatment of the boy, etc. 
Marie Antoinette brought to trial — the accusation against her by 
Fouquier-Tinville and by Hebert — her replies — the witnesses — 
clamours of the Jacobins — her condemnation — great concourse 
to witness her execution — she is placed on the tumbril, with her 
arms tied behind her — arrives at the Place de la Revolution — 
her death, etc. 

In the meantime Dumouriez, disgusted with the san- 
guinary government of the Jacobins, had entered into 
negotiations with Holland and Great Britain, for the 
purpose of restoring the constitutional throne, but 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 183 

was unsuccessful, and he himself, with a few followers, 
escaped from the army of France to the Austrians. 
The failure of this conspiracy added strength to the 
ruling party in Paris, which now, in the name of the 
safety of the people, prepared to take the most despe- 
rate measures. 

A few of the proscribed Girondists had remained 
prisoners in their own houses, but the most of them 
had escaped from Paris to the provinces, where they 
established newspapers in opposition to the sway of 
Robespierre, Danton, and the ruling' faction, and lent 
all their energies to increase the revolt which was now 
going on in La Vendee, Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, 
and other places.* 

The Convention took early and vigorous measures 
to crush the revolt in the province of La Vendee. An 
army was sent thither with orders to exterminate the 
enemies of the republic, and commissioners despatched 
thither to try suspected persons by the Revolutionary 
Tribunal. All the nobility in La Vendee were up in 
arms, exasperated by the execution of Louis XVI., 
and the peasants almost universally arranged them- 
selves under their command. Their success was for 
several months uninterrupted, but they were finally 
defeated with great slaughter, and their chiefs brought 
to the guillotine, whilst the armies of the republic tra- 
versed the country, destroying grain and cattle, and 
their path might be traced by the conflagration of vil- 
lages, their footsteps known by the corpses of the in- 
habitants. Male inhabitants disappeared entirely from 

* " Bordeaux, Marseilles, Toulon, and Lyons, had declared them- 
selves against the Jacobin supremacy. Rich from commerce and 
their maratime situation, and, in the case of Lyons, from their com- 
mand of internal navigation, the wealthy merchants and manufac- 
turers of those cities foresaw the total insecurity of property, and, in 
consequence, their own ruin, in the system of arbitary spoliation and 
murder upon which the government of the Jacobins was founded." — 
Scott. " These cities were warmly attached to freedom, but it was 
that regulated freedom which provides for the protection of all, not 
that which subjects the better classes to the despotism of the lower." 
— Alison, 

17 



184 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the towns, either slain, or fled into the forests, where 
they were hunted by the soldiers. A few v^omen only 
remained to be seen. Country-seats, cottages, habita- 
tions of whichever kind, were nearly all burned to the 
ground. The herds and flocks were wandering in 
terror around their usual places of shelter, now smok- 
ing in ruins. At night, the wavering and dismal blaze 
of conflagration afforded light over the country. Tq 
the bleating of disturbed flocks, and bellowing of the 
terrified cattle, were joined the deep hoarse notes of, 
carrion crows, and the yells of wild animals com,ing 
from the recesses of the woods to prey on the carcasesi 
of the slain.* " It seemed as if the Vendeans were no 
longer regarded as men ; the pregnant woman the 
child in the cradle, even the beasts of the field, ap- 
peared to the Republicans worthy of extermination," 
says a contemporary writer.f 

While these were devastating the country, scaffolds 
were erected in the towns. At Nantes, a revolutionary 
tribunal was formed, under the direction of Jean Bap- 
tiste Carrier, who had been sent from Paris with a 
commission to suppress the civil war by severity, 
which he exercised in the most atrocious manner.| 
He declared immediately aft;er his arrival at Nantes, 
that, notwithstanding the promise of pardon made to 
those of the Vendeans who should lay down their 
arms, no quarter ought to be given them, but they 
should all be^put to death ; and he began by causing 
the wretched creatures who surrendered to be mowed 
down by musketry and grape-shot, in parties of one 
and two hundred. And, in fact, this frantic wretch 
imagined that he had no other mission than to slaugh- 
ter.§ Unfortunate people were daily arriving in 
crowds, driven by the armies which pressed them 

* Memoirs of a Republican Officer. t Toulangeon. 

t " Carrier, still a young man, was one of those inferior and vie? ^ 
lent spirits, who, in the excitement of civil wars, become monsters 
of cruelty and extravagance." — Thiers. 

§ " This Carrier might have summoned hell to match his cruelty, 
without a demon venturing to answer his challenge." — Scott. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 185 

closely on all sides. Carrier ordered them to be con- 
fined in the prisons, and soon collected ten thousand 
of them. ^The prisons could no longer contain them, 
as fresh victims were daily arriving, and the process 
of the Revolutionary Tribunal was too slow to dis- 
pose of them ; besides, it was troublesome to bury the 
bodies. Shooting them by the hundreds, and behead- 
ing them by the axe of the guillotine, was even too 
expeditious for burial, and the bodies were left lying 
upon the scene of carnage, which infected the air to 
such a degree as to produce an epidemic disease in the 
town. 

The river Loire, which runs through Nantes, sug- 
gested a horrible idea to Carrier, namely, to rid him- 
self of the prisoners by drowning them. He made a 
first trial, loaded a barge with ninety "fanatical 
priests," as they were termed, and under pretext of 
transporting them to some other place, ordered it to 
be sunk when at some distance from the city. Hav- 
ing devised this expedient, he resolved to employ it on 
a larger scale. He no longer employed the mock for- 
mality of a trial ; but ordered the prisoners to be taken 
in the night, in parties of one and two hundred, and 
put into the boats. By these boats they were carried 
to small vessels prepared for his horrible purpose. 
The prisoners were thrown into the hold ; the hatches 
were nailed down; the avenues to the deck were 
closed with planks; the executioners then got into 
boats along side, and carpenters cut holes in the sides 
of the vessels, and sunk them.* 

For months was this system of extermination car- 
ried on ; and the horror expressed by many of the 
citizens for the mode of execution formed the ground 
for fresh arrests and increasing murders. Women big 
with child ; children, eight, nine and ten years of age, 
were thrown together "into the stream, on the banks 
of which, men, armed with sabres, were placed to cut 
off their heads if the waves should throw them un- 
drowned on the shore. 

* Thiers. 



186 * THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

On one occasion, by order of Carrier, twenty-three 
royalist families were guillotined in one day without 
trial, men, women and children. The executioner 
died two or three days after, with horror at what he 
himself had done. On another occasion, five hundred 
children of both sexes, the eldest of whom was not 
fourteen years old, were led out to be shot. The little- 
ness of their stature caused most of the bullets at the 
first discharge to fly over their heads; they broke 
their bonds, rushed into the ranks of the executioners, 
clung round their knees, and sought for mercy. But 
nothing could soften the assassins. They put them to 
death even when lying at their feet. At another time, 
one hundred and forty women, incarcerated upon sus- 
picion, were drowned together. This was what Car- , 
rier termed republican baptism. A still greater refine- 
ment of cruelty, he called republican marriages. T wo 
persons of different sexes, generally an old man and 
an old woman, or a young man and a young woman, 
stripped entirely naked, were bound together with 
cords, and, after being left in torture in that situation 
half an hour, thrown into the river.* The Loire was 
covered with dead bodies. Ships, in weighing anchor, 
firequently raised boats filled with drowned persons. 
Birds of prey flocked to the banks of the river, and 
gorged themselves with human flesh. The fish, feast- 
ing upon a food which rendered them unwholesome, 
were forbidden by the municipality to be caught. To 
these horrors were added that of the disease which 
had broken out, and of dearth. 

In this disastrous situation, Carrier, still boiling with 
rage, forbade the slightest emotion of pity ; he seized 
by the collar, and threatened with his sword, those 
who came to remonstrate, and caused bills to be 
posted, stating that whoever presumed to solicit on 
behalf of any person in confinement should be thrown 
into prison himself t Many women died of terror the 
moment a man entered their cells, conceiving that they 

* Alison. t Thiers. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 187 

were about to be led out to baptism or marriage ; the 
floors were covered with the bodies of their infants, 
numbers of whom were yet quivering in the agonies 
of death. On one occasion, the inspector entered the 
prison to seek for a child, where, the evening before, 
he had left above three hundred infants ; they were all 
gone in the morning, having been drowned the pre- 
ceding night. In fact, several hundred persons were 
thrown every night into the river, and their shrieks, as 
they were led forth from prison to the boats, wakened 
the inhabitants of the town, freezing every heart with 
horror. Carrier was often called upon to spare the 
children, but in vain. " They are all vipers ; let them 
be stifled," was his reply.* 

Innumerable instances of heroism occurred, espe- 
cially among the female sufferers. Madame de Bon- 
champs, (wife of a Vendean officer,) was pursued by 
the soldiers of the republicans, and lived in hiding- 
places, concealed at times in the dwellings of the 
peasants, at other times in the woods. For several 
days, when the pursuit was hottest, she was concealed 
with her two children, in the branches and leaves of 
an oak tree, at the foot of which the soldiers were fre- 
quently passing. In this forlorn situation the small-pox 
atacked her and her children, and her son died. At 
night, when the soldiers slept, provisions were brought 
to her by the peasants. At length she was discovered, 
conveyed to Nantes, and con'demned to death. She 
had resigned herself to her fate, when she read on a 
slip of paper, handed to her through the grate of her 
dungeon, these words: — "Say you are with child." 
She did so, and her execution was suspended. Her 
husband having been dead a long time, she was 
obliged to declare that she was enciente by a republi- 
can soldier. She remained shut up, and every day 
saw unfortunate women taken out to execution. At 
the end of three months, it being evident she was not 
pregnant, she was ordered for execution, but obtained 

* Alison 

- 17* 



188 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

again two months and a half respite, when the death 
of Robespierre saved her.* 

Madame de Jourdain was led out to be drowned 
with her three daughters. A soldier wished to save 
the youngest, who was very beautiful. But she, deter- 
mined to' share the fate of her mother, threw herself 
into the water. The unfortunate girl, falling on a heap 
of dead bodies, did not sink. " Oh, push me in ; the 
water is not deep enough," she exclaimed, and sunk 
beneath the soldier's thrust. 

Mademoiselle Cuissan, aged sixteen, of still greater 
beauty, excited the most vehement admiration in a 
young officer of hussars, who entreated her to allow 
him to save her ; but as he could not undertake to 
free an aged parent, the partner of her captivity, she 
refused life, and threw herself into the Loire along 
with her mother.f 

A horrible death was that of Madame de la Roche 
St. Andre. As she was with child, they spared her 
till she gave birth to her infant, and then permitted her 
to nurse it ; but it died, and the next day she was 
executed.^ 

Agatha Larochejaquelain escaped in the most extra- 
ordinary manner. She had left an asylum in a cot- 
tage of Brittany, in consequence of one of the 
deceitful amnesties which Carrier published to lure his 
victims from their places of concealment, and was 
seized and brought before Lamberti, a ferocious revo- 
lutionist. Her beauty excited his lust. He promised 
to save her, and took her out of prison one night into 
a little boat on the Loire. This boat had a concealed 
trap, and Carrier had given it to Lamberti for private 
murders. Lamberti rowed her out into the stream, 
and there wished to sacrifice her chastity to his brutal 
desires; she resisted, he struggled wifh her, forced 
her down into the bottom of the boat, and in the 
extremity of *the moment she attempted to throw her- 
self overboard. Her courage and distress finally 

* Larochejaquelain. t Alison. t Larochejaquelain. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 189 

softened his stern heart. ' " You are a brave girl," 
said he; "1 will save you." In effect, he left her con- 
cealed at the bottom of the boat, among some bushes 
on the margin of the stream, where she lay for eight 
days and nights a witness to the unceasing nightly 
massacre of her fellow-prisoners. She was arrested 
again — again escaped — and was again arrested, and 
would have perished upon the guillotine, had not the 
fall of Robespierre suspended the executions, and 
ultimately restored her to hberty. — In brief, fifteen 
thousand persons perished at Nantes, under the hands 
of the executioner, or of diseases in prison, in one 
month; the total victims of the Reign of Terror at 
that place exceeded thirty thousand.* 

At Lyons, Bordeaux, Marseilles, Toulon, and other 
places throughout France, the same horrors and 
atrocities marked the Reign of Terror. Robespierre 
and Danton ruled triumphant in Paris, where they 
passed whatever decrees they chose in the Convention, 
and sent forth their satellites to execute their terrible 
doom of extermination against all who opposed their 
sway. They had travelling Revolutionary Tribunals, 
with guillotines rumbling along on wheels, progressing 
from town to town throughout the whole empire, and, 
wherever the executioners were dilatory, orders for 
rigorous proceedings came from Robespierre, with a 
hint of a dungeon in case of refusal.f 

A formidable decree, issued against Lyons, enacted 
that the rebels and their accomplices should be tried 
by a military commission ; that the sans-culottes 
should be maintained at the expense of the aristo- 
crats; that the houses of the wealthy should be de- 
stroyed, and that the name of the city should be 
changed. The execution of this decree was entrusted 
to Collot d'Herbois, Maribon-Montaut, and Fouche. 
Couthon had already preceded them, and was active 

* Toulangeon ; Beauchamp ; Alison, etc. 
t Duchess D'Abrantes. 



190 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

in the reduction of the city. * The latter attended by 
a crowd of satellites, traversed the finest quarters or 
Lyons, with a silver hammer, and striking at the 
doors of the devoted houses, exclaimed, " Rebelhous 
house, I strike you in the name of the law." Instantly 
the agents of destruction, of whom twenty thousand 
were in the pay of the Convention, commenced, and, 
with pickaxes and other implements, levelled the dwell- 
ing to the ground. But this was only a prelude to a 
more bloody vengeance. Collot d'Herbois was animated 
with a secret hatred towards the Lyonese, for ten 
years before, when an obscure actor, he had been 
hissed off their stage. He now resolved at leisure to 
gratify his revenge, f Fouche, his associate, pub- 

* " J. Couthon, surnamed Cato during the Reign of Terror, bom 
in 1756, an advocate, embraced the revolutionary principles with 
astonishing eagerness, and, during the sitting of the Convention, 
showed himself the most ardent partizan of sanguinary measures. 
He voted for the King's death, and eagerly opposed delay. He was 
a favorite tool of Robespierre. Being sent to Lyons, he presided at 
the execution of the rebel chiefs, and began to put in force the de- 
cree which ordered the demolition of that city. In the year. 1794, 
he was executed, and suffered horribly before he died ; his singular 
conformation, and the dreadful contraction of his limbs, so incom- 
moded the executioner while fastening him on the plank of the 
guillotine, that he was obliged to lay him on his side to give the fatal 
blow." Biograpkie Moderne " Couthon was a decrepid being, 
whose lower extremities were paralyzed— whose sensibility led him 
constantly to foster a favorite spaniel in his bosom, that he might 
have something on which to bestow kindness and caresses— but who 
was at heart as fierce as Danton, and as pitiless as Robespierre." — 
Scott. 

t " J, M. Collot d'Herbois first appeared on the stage and had 
little success. He played at Geneva, at the Hague, and at Lyons, 
where, having often been hissed, he vowed the most cruel vengeance 
agamst that town. The line of acting in which he played best was 
that of tyrants in tragedies. He went to Paris at the beginning of 
the Revolution, and embraced the popular cause. Posssessed of a 
fine face, a powerful voice, and great boldness, he became one of the 
oracles at the Jacobin club. He was no stranger to the September 
massacres. During the King's trial, he sat at the too of the Moun- 
tam by Robespierres side, and voted for the monarch's death. It 
has been said of this man, who was surnamed the Tiger, that he 
waa the most sanguinary of the Terrorists. In 1793 he took his 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 191 

lished, before his arrival, a proclamation in which he 
declared that the French people could acknowledge 
no other worship than that of universal morality ; 
that all religious emblems should be destroyed ; and 
that over the gates of the churchyards should be 
written — Death is an eternal Sleep. Proceeding on 
these atheistical principles, the first step of Collot 
d'Herbois and Fouche was to institute a fete in honor 
of Chalier, the republican governor of Lyons, who had 
been put to death by the royalists. His bust was 
carried through the streets, followed by an immense 
crowd of assassins and prostitutes. After them came 
an ass bearing the Gospel, the Cross, and the com- 
munion vases, which were soon committed to the 
flames, while the ass was compelled to drink con- 
secrated wine out of the communion cup. 

The executions meantime continued without the 
slighest relaxation. Many women watched for the 
hour when their husbands were to pass to the scaffold, 
precipitated themselves upon the cart, were carried 
along with them, and voluntarily suffered death by 
by their side. Daughters surrendered their honor 
to save their parent's lives ; but the monsters who 
viglated them, adding treachery to crime, led them 
out to behold the execution of their relatives. 

Deeming the daily execution of fifteen or twenty per- 
sons too tardy a display of vengeance, Collot d'Herbois 
prepared a new and simultaneous mode of punish- 
ment. Sixty captives of both sexes were led out to- 
gether, tightly bound in a file, to the Place du Brot- 
teaux, where they were arranged in two files with a 

departure for Lyons, protesting that the South should soon be puri- 
fied. It is from the time of this mission that his horrible celebrity 
takes its rise. He subsequently became a rival of Robespierre, 
whom he denounced. In i795 he was transported to Guiana, where 
he endeavoured to stir up the blacks against the whites. He died in 
the following year of a violent fever, which was increased by his 
drinking a bottle of brandy. He was the autlior of some pamphlets 
and theatrical pieces, none of which deserve notice." Biographie 
Moderne. 



192 TftE REIGN OF TERROR. 

deep ditch on each side, which was to be the place of 
their burial, while gendarmes with uplifted sabres 
threatened with instant death whoever moved from 
their position. At the extremity of the file, two 
cannon, loaded with grape shot, were so placed as to 
enfilade the whole. The signal was then given, and 
the cannon were fired. Broken limbs, torn off by the 
shot, were scattered in every direction, while blood 
streamed into the ditches on either side of the line. A 
second and . a third discharge were insufficient to 
complete the work of death, till, at length, the gen- 
darmes rushed in and despatched the sufferers with 
their sabres. 

Day after day this bloody scene was renewed. 
Upon one occasion two hundred and nine captives 
were brought before Couthon and the revolutionary 
judges, andf, with scarcely a hearing, condemned to be 
executed together. With such precipitancy was the 
affair conducted, that two commissaries of the prison 
were led out along with their captives ; their cries, 
their protestations, were alike disregarded. In pass- 
ing the bridge Morand, the error was discovered on 
the captives being counted ; and it was intimated to 
Collot d'Herbois that there were two too many. 
" What signifies it," said he, " that there are too 
many? If they die to-day, they cannot die to-morrow." 
The whole were brought to the place of execution, 
where they were attached to one cord made fast to 
trees at stated intervals, with their hands tied behind 
their backs, and numerous pickets of soldiers disposed 
so as at one discharge to destroy them all. At a 
given signal the fusillade commenced ; but few were 
killed; the greater part only had a jaw or a limb 
broken; and, uttering the most piercing cries, they 
broke loose in their agony from the rope, and were 
cut down by the gendarmes, many of whom found a 
pleasure in exterminating the aristocrats. The great 
numbers who survived "the discharge, rendered the 
work of destruction a laborious operation, however, 
and several were still breathing on the following day, 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 193 

when their bodies were mingled with quicklime, and 
cast into a common grave. D'Herbois and Fouche 
were witnesses of this butchery from a distance, by- 
means of a telescope which they directed to the spot. 
All the other fusillades were conducted in the same 
manner. One of them was executed under the win- 
dows of an hotel on the Quay, where Fouche, with 
thirty Jacobins and tv/enty courtezans, was engaged 
at dinner. They rose from the table to enjoy "the 
bloody spectacle. 

The bodies of the slain were floated in such num- 
bers down the Rhone that the waters were tainted. 
During the course of five months, this carnage was 
continued, whilst all the houses of the rich were razed 
to the ground, and a vast amount of plunder fell into 
the hands of the Jacobins. Thirty-one thousand per- 
sons were butchered, and more than double that 
number were driven into exile.* 

One day, during these bloody executions, a young 
girl rushed into the hall where the Revolutionary Tri- 
bunal was held, and throwing herself at the feet of the 
judges, said, " There remain to me, of all my family, 
only my brothers ! Mother — father — sisters — uncles 
— you have butchered all ; and now you are going to 
condemn my brothers! Ah, in mercy, ordain that I 
may ascend the scaffold with them !" Her prayer, 
accompanied as it was with all the marks of frantic 
despair, was refused. She then threw herself into the 
Rhone, where she perished, f 

Atrocities equally great were perpetrated at Bor- 
deaux, Marseilles and Toulon. One instance of refined 
cruelty that took place at Bordeaux, was that of a 
women charged with the crime of having wept at her 
husband's execution. She was condemned in conse- 
quence to sit several hours under the suspended blade 
of the guillotine, which shed upon her, drop by drop, 
the blood of the deceased, whose corpse was above 
her on the scaffold, before she was released by death 

* Alison. t Du Broca, 



194 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

from her agony. * — At Marseilles and Toulon, Freron, 
Barras, and Robespierre the younger, were the com- 
missioners despatched from the Convention to execute 
its decrees. On their arrival at Marseilles, they pub- 
lished a proclamation announcing that Terror was the 
order of the day. f At Toulon several thousand citi- 
zens of every age and sex perished in a few weeks by 
the blade of the guillotine ; two hundred were daily 
beheaded for a considerable period, and twelve thou- 
sand laborers were hired to demolish the buildings of 
the city. J " Things go on well here," wrote Freron, 
five days after his arrival at Toulon ; " we have 
required twelve thousand masons to raze the town ; 
each day since our arrival we have caused two hun- 
dred heads to fall, and already eight hundred Tou- 
lonese have perished." It was at first intended to put 
to death all who had accepted any office, or borne 
arms, in the town during the siege. Freron conse- 
quently signified to them that they must all go, under 
pain of death, to the Champs de Mars of that city. 
The Toulonese, thinking to obtain pardon by submis- 
sion, obeyed, and eight thousand persons were assem- 
bled at the appointed place. Freron, accompanied by a 
formidable train, surrounded this assemblage and 
commenced firing upon them ; but, shooting with 
muskets being insufficient, they had afterwards re- 
course to the mitraillade ; and it was in another exe- 
cution of this nature, that Freron, in order to despatch 
the victims who had not perished by the first dis- 
charge, cried out, " Let those who are still living — 
rise; the republic pardons them." Some unhappy 
creatures trusting to this promise, rose, he caused 
them to be instantly fired upon. § 

* Louvet. t Biographic Moderne. t Alison. 

$ Biog. Moderne.— " L. S. Freron was educated at the college 
Louis-le-grand with Robespierre, whose friend he became in the 
Revolution, his emulator, and at last one of his denouncers. In 1789 
he began to edit the " Orator of the People," and became the coad- 
jutor of Marat. At the time of the expedition to St. Domingo in 
1802, he was appointed prefect of the South, and sailed thither with 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 195 

While these atrocities were being carried on in the 
south of France, Joseph Lebon imitated them in the 
north, having fixed his principal residence at tlie town 
of Arras, but travelling to and fro with his judges, exe- 
cutioners and a guillotine. He everywhere left bloody 
traces of his progress. At St. Pol, St. Omer, Bethune, 
Bapeaume, Aire, and other places, blood of the aristo- 
crats freely flowed from his travelling instrument of 
death. At Cambray, perceiving as he thought that the 
aristocrats were in secret correspondence with the 
Austrians, he hastened thither with his executioners 
and guillotine, and in a few days executed thousands 
of suspected persons. After finishing an excursion, 
he would return to Arras, where he would celebrate 
his successful extermination of aristocracy, by bac- 
chanal orgies with his judges and various members 
of the Jacobin clubs in that town. Even his execu- 
tioners were admitted to his table and treated with 
the highest consideration. Stationed in a balcony, 
Lebon witnessed the executions ; he would address 
the people, and cause the Ca Ira to be played while 
the blood of the aristocrats was flowing. One day, 
having received intelligence of a victory obtained by 
the French over the Austrians, he hastened out upon 
his balcony and ordered the executions to be sus- 
pended, that the sufferers who were about to die 
might be made acquainted with the successes of the 
republic* Mingling treachery and seduction with 

Gen. Leclerc ; but he sunk under the influence of the climate, after 
an illness of six days." — Biographie Moderne 

* Thier& — " Joseph Lebon, born at Arras, at the period of the 
Revolution connected himself with Robespierre. After the 10th of 
August, he was appointed mayor of that town; subsequently joined 
the Convention as a supplementary deputy. In 1793 he was sent as 
commissioner to Arras, where he perpetrated the most flagrant cruel- 
ties. In 1795 he was condemned to death as a Terrorist, and at the 
time of his execution was but' thirty years of age." Biog. Mod.- — 
" Lebon prided himself on his apostacy, libertinism, and cruelty. — 
Every day after dinner he presided at the execution of his victims. 
By his order, an orchestra was erected close to the guillotine. It was 
his custom to be present at the executions." — Prudhomme. 

18 



196 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

sanguinary oppression, Lebon turned the despotic 
powers with which he was invested into the means of 
individual gratification. After having disgraced the 
wife of a noWeman, who yielded to his embraces in 
order to save her husband's life, he put the man to 
death before her eyes.* 

Thus all the great cities, the towns and villages of 
France experienced the vengeance of the Mountain. 
But Paris, full of illustrious victims, was soon to be- 
come the theatre of much greater cruelties. The 
crafty Robespierre, with his reputation of incorrupti- 
bility, had managed to gain a popularity among the 
Jacobins superior to that of Danton, whose profusion 
and expenditure of living, both diminished his reputa- 
tion, and laid him under the suspicion of peculation.! 
Preparations were now making for the trial of Marie 
Antoinette, of the Girondins, of the Duke of Orleans, 
of M. Bailli, and of a great number of generals and 
ministers, while the prisons in Paris were daily being 
filled with suspected persons, Fouquier-Tinville inde- 
fatigabiy presiding at the Revolutionary Tribunal, and 
the axe of the guillotine dail)'- at work. Besides the 
Abbaye, La Force, the Conceirgerie, and the various 
other prisons, the palace of the Luxembourg, the college 
of Duplessis, and other buildings were converted into 
prisons. People of wej^lth and nobility were daily ar- 
rested, and all the rank and beauty of Paris were hud- 
dled indiscriminately into dungeons, furnished merely 
with straw. The cells of the women were as horrid 
as those of the men, equally dark — damp — filthy — 
crowded. In time, however, some amelioration was 
permitted, regulations were established, and domestic 
duties were divided among them. The high-born 
would not at first deign to associate with those of in- 
ferior rank, but community of suffering soon brought 
them to a level. All had the privilege of assembling 
together in a common hall, where groups would form 
around a table, a stove, or a fire-place. Poets, thrown 

* Alison. t Thiers ; Scott. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 197 

into prison with all those who excited distrust by any 
superiority whatever, recited verses. Musicians gave 
concerts, and admirable music was daily heard in 
these places of proscription. Luxury soon became the 
companion of pleasure. The females indulged in 
dress ; ties of friendship and love were formed ; and 
all the ordinary scenes of life were reproduced here 
till the very day that the scaffold put an end to them — 
singular example of the French character, of its 
thoughtlessness, its gaiety, its aptitude to pleasure, in 
all the situations of life ! Delightful poems, romantic 
adventures, acts of beneficence, a singular confusion 
of rank, fortunes, and opinions, characterized this 
prison-life during the Reign of Terror. It is true that 
the pride of certain prisoners withstood this equality 
of misfortune. Affliction, however, brings back all 
hearts to nature and humanity; and soon, when Fou- 
quier-Tinville knocked daily at these abodes, demand- 
ing more lives, and friends and relatives were parted 
by death, those who were left mourned and took com- 
fort together, and learned to entertain one and the same 
feeling amidst the same misfortunes.* 

At this period the gardens of the Luxembourg every 
day offered a scene peculiarly interesting and pathetic. 
A multitude of married women from the various quar- 
ters of Paris crowded together, in the hope of seeing 
their husbands for a moment at the windows of the 
prison, to offer, or receive from them, a look, a ges- 
ture, or some other testim.ony of their affection. No 
weather banished these women from the gardens — 
neither the excess of heat or cold, nor tempests of v/ind 
or rain. One would present herself with an infant in 
her arms, bathing it with tears in her husband's sight ; 
another would disguise herself in the dress of a beg- 
gar, and sit the whole day at the foot of a tree, where 
she could be seen by her husband. The miseries of 
these affectionate women were greatly enhanced when 
a high fence was thrown around the prison, and they 

* Thiers. 



198 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

were forbidden to remain stationary in any spot. 
Then were they seen wandering Hke shades through 
the dark and melancholy avenues of the garden, and 
casting the most anxious looks at the impenetrable 
walls of the palace.* 

But in the Conceirgerie, and around it, reigned the 
most afflicting terror, grief and despair. Within it 
were crowded those who had at most but three or 
four days to live ; without it, wailed the relatives of 
the condemned. Into this, from the other prisons, 
were the unfortunate victims removed the day previ- 
ous to their trial, and they remained there only during 
the interval between their trial and execution.f Here, 
one day, among a multitude that hourly expected their 
trial, was a young man accompanied by his wife, a 
young and beautiful woman. While they were walk- 
ing in the court with the other prisoners, the wife 
heard her husband called to the outer gate of the 
prison. Comprehending that it was the signal of his 
death, she ran after him, resolved to share his fate. 
The jailer refused to let her pass. With strength de- 
rived from despair, she made her way, threw herself 
into her husband's arms, and besought them to suffer 
her to die with him. She was torn away by the guards, 
and at the same moment dashed her head violently 
against the prison-gate, and in a few minutes ex- 
pired.J 

Such was the Reign of Terror in Paris ! Even Fou- 
quier-Tinville himself felt some compunctions at the 
horror with which he was surrounded. " On one oc- 
casion," he says, "the Committee of Public Safety 
ordered me to increase the executions to one hundred 
and fifty a day, but the proposal filled my mind with 
such horror, that, as I returned from the Seine, the 
river appeared to run red with blood." ^ Nothing 
astonished the few who escaped from these prisons 
and the guillotine so much as the want of sympathy 

* Du Broca. t Thiers. 

t Du Broca. $ His speech on his Trial. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 199 

that prevailed out of doors for the sufferings and death 
that was continually going on. The theatres, and all 
places of amusement, were thronged as usual. 

The prophetic words pronounced months previously 
by the eloquent Vergniaud, were now being realized. 
" We are marching," said he, " from crimes to amnes- 
ties, and from amnesties to crimes. The great body 
of the citizens are so Winded by their frequent oc- 
currence, that they confound these seditious disturb- 
ances with the grand national movement in favour of 
freedom ; regard the violence of brigands as the efforts 
of energetic minds; and consider robbery itself as 
indispensable to public liberty. Citizens, there is but 
too much reason to dread that the Revolution, like 
Saturn, will successively devour all its progeny, and 
finally leave only despotism, with all its attendant ca- 
lamities." 

Papers and pamphlets against the aristocrats poured 
from the press. The Convention continued its sittings, 
and all the different clubs held nightly meetings. The 
Jacobins rioted in the confiscations of property, and 
did all in their power to continue the Reign of Terror. 
It was evident, too, that the entire Committe of Public 
Safety were in favor of this system of terror — they 
perfectly agreed in the extermination of all who op- 
posed their sway. They advanced bUndly in this hor- 
rible career, not knowing whither it was likely to lead 
them ; and such is the sad condition of man engaged 
in evil, that he has not the power to stop. As soon as 
he begins to conceive a doubt as to the nature of his 
actions, as soon as he discovers that he has lost his 
way, instead of turning back he rushes forward, as if 
to stun himself— as if to escape from the sights which 
annoy him.* 

The Jacobins now brow-beated the Convention, as- 
sisted by the Mountain faction, in passing a decree for 
bringing the Q,ueen, the Girondins, and the Duke of 
Orleans to immediate trial. With the Queen they were 

* Thiers; Alison, etc. 
18* 



200 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

particularly anxious to commence a long series of im- 
molations. To her they attributed the treasons of the 
court, the waste of public money, and, above all, the 
inveterate hostility of Austria. Louis Capet, they said, 
had suffered everything to be done ; but it was Marie 
Antoinette, they asserted, who had been his instigator, 
and it was upon her, as well as him, that punishment 
ought to fall. The wretch, Hebert, editor of a disgust- 
ing paper, entitled " Father Duchesne," had all along 
made it his particular business to torment the unfortu- 
nate remnant of the dethroned family confined in the 
Tem.ple.* He asserted that the family of the tyrant 
ought not to be better treated than any sans-culotte 
family; and he had caused a resolution to be passed, 
by which the sort of luxury in which the prisoners in 
the Temple were maintained was to be suppressed. 
They were no longer to be allowed either poultry or 
pastry ; they were reduced to one sort of aliment for 
breakfast, and to soup, or broth, and a single dish, for 
dinner, etc. Tallow candles were furnished them in- 
stead of wax; pewter instead of silver plate, and delft 
ware instead of porcelain. 

*_" J. R. Hebert, bom at Alencon, was naturally of an active dis- 
position and an ardent imagination, but wholly without informa- 
tion. Before the Revolution, he lived in Paris by intrigue and im^ 
posture. Being employed at the theatre of the Varietes as receiver 
of the checks, he was dismissed for dishonesty, and retired to the 
house of a physician whom he robbed. In 1789 he embraced with 
ardour the popular movement, and soon made hinrself known by a 
journal entitled " Pere Duchesne," which had great success among 
the people on account of its violent principles. On the 10th of Au- 
gust, Hebert became one of the insurrectional committee, and, after- 
wards, in September, contributed to the prison massacres. He was 
one of the first to preach atheism. His popularity, however, was 
brief, for he was brought to the scaffold, together with his whole 
faction, by Robespierre, in 1794. He died with the greatest marks of 
weakness, and fainted several times on the road to execution. On 
the occasion of the Queen's trial, Hebert cast an imputation on her 
of so atrocious and extravagant a nature that even Robespierre was 
disgusted with it, and exclaimed " Madman ! was it not enough to 
have asserted she was Messalina, without also making an Agrippina 
of her !' " — Biographie Moderne. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 201 

This had been done, and subsequently it was de- 
creed that Marie Antoinette should be separated from 
her sister, her daughter and her son, and removed to 
the Conciergerie — where, alone, in a narrow prison, 
she was reduced to what was strictly necessary, like 
the other prisoners.* It is said that her separation 
from her son, was a scene so touching, so heart- 
rending, that the very jailors who witnessed it, when 
giving an account of it to the authorities, could not 
refrain from tears.f The young prince was put under 
the charge of a shoemaker and municipal officer, 
named Simon ; he and his wife were the instructors to 
whom it was deemed right to consign him, for the 
purpose of giving him a sans-culotte education. 
Simon and his wife were shut up in the Temple, and 
becoming prisoners with the unfortunate boy, were 
directed to bring him up in their own way.J " What 
am I to do with the child 1" said Simon to the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety. " Must I kill him V he asked. 
-— " No." — " Must I poison himT" — "No."— " What 
then V — " Get rid of him,'" This hint was but too 
faithfully executed. By depriving the boy of air, 
exercise, and by keeping him in a continual state of 
squalid filth, he was at length brought to his grave, 
without imposing upon his keepers the necessity of 
actual violence. § It appears that Simon carried out 
his instructions by leaving the boy, sick!)'" as he was, 
and only eight years old, locked in a large room — 
absolutely alone — day after day — merely taking vic- 
tuals to him at stated intervals. For six months his 
bed remained unmade, and it was alive with bugs and 
vermin still more disgusting. His linen and his per- 
son were covered with them. For more than a year 
he had no change of shirt or stockings. His window 
was never opened, and the apartment was infectious 
with the stench arising from his ordure and the un- 
ventilated atmosphere. He passed his days solitarily 

* Thiers. T Weber. 

X Thiers. § Lacretelle ; Alison. 



202 THE BEIGN OP TERROR. 

and wholly without occupation. No light was allowed 
him in the evening, and he crawled into his dirty bed 
unattended, and passed the dark hours of the night in 
alternations of slumber and tears. This situation 
affected his mind as well as his body, and he sunk to 
his grave in a frightful state of idiotcy and atrophy.* 
His aunt and sister were kept confined in another part 
of the Temple. 

It was on the 2d of August, 1793, that the Queen 
was separated from her family, to be received in the 
Conceirgerie, where a narrow, gloomy and damp 
apartment, a worn mattress, and a bed of straw, were 
the sole accommodations of one for whom the splen- 
dors of Versailles once seemed hardly adequate. She 
was kept there above two months in the closest con- 
finement.! Under pretence of giving her a person to 
wait upon her, they placed near her a spy — a man of 
horrible countenance, and hollow, sepulchral voice. 
This wretch, whose name was Barassin, was a robber 
and murderer by profession. A few days before her 
trial, he was removed, and a gendarme placed in her 
chamber, who watched over her night and day, and 
'from whom she was not separated, even when in bed, 
but by a ragged curtain. In this melancholy abode 
she had no other dress than an old black gown, stock- 
ings with holes, which she was necessitated to mend 
every day ; and she was entirely destitute of shoes.| 

It was on the 14th of October, 1793, that Marie An- 
toinette was brought before the Revolutionary Tribu- 
nal, Fouquier-Tinville being her accuser. An immense 
crowd assembled to witness the spectacle of a deposed 
Q,ueen undergoing a trial. There she stood — the once 
beautiful and flattered Glueen of France — dragged 
before the sanguinary tribunal by inexorable revolu- 
tionary vengeance. And she appeared there without 
even a remote chance of acquittal, for it was not to 
obtain her acquittal that the Jacobins had brought her 

* Duchess D'Angouleme. The boy lingered until June, 1795. 
t Alison. |Du Broca. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 203 

there — but as an act of defiance to the crowned heads 
in Europe. As it was necessary to prefer some 
charges against her, Fouquier-Tinville had collected 
the rumors current among the populace ever since the 
arrival of the princess in France, and, in the act of 
accusation, he charged her with having plundered the 
exchequer, first for her pleasures, and afterwards in 
order to transmit money to her brother, the Emperor 
of Austria.* He insisted on the scenes of the 5th and 
6th of October, 1789, and on the dinner of the life- 
guards, alleging that she had at that period framed a 
plot, obliging the people of Paris to go to Versailles to 
frustrate it. He next accused her of having governed 
her husband, interfered in the choice of ministers, con- 
ducted the intrigues with those of the deputies who 
were gained over to the interests of the court, of hav- 
ing prepared the flight to Varennes, provoked the war, 
and transmitted to generals of the Austrian army the 
plans of campaigns drawn out for the action of the 
French forces.f He further accused her of having 
prepared a conspiracy on the 10th of August, of having 
on that day caused the people to be fired upon, of 
having induced her husband to defend himself by 
taxing him with cowardice ; lastly, of having never 
ceased to plot and correspond with foreigners since 
her captivity in the Temple, and of having there treated 
her young son as a king.J 

Such were the accusations against the unfortunate 
Marie Antoinette, — who thus saw her actions distorted 
and converted into crime. As the form of examining 
witnesses was necessary, several were called, but no 
precise fact was ehcited. Some had seen the Q,ueen in 
high spirits when the life-guards, upon the night of the 

* " Her look, they say, as that hideous indictment was reading, 
continued calm ; ' she was sometimes observed moving her fingers, 
as when one plays on the piano.' " — Carlyle. 

t " Her answers (denials of these charges,) are prompt, clear, often 
of laconic brevity; resolution, which has grown contemptuous with- 
out ceasing to be dignified, veils itself in calm words. — Carlyle. 

X Thiers. 



204 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

celebrated banquet, testified their attachment ; others 
had seen her vexed and dejected while being brought 
to Paris, or brought back from Varennes ; others had 
been present at splendid festivities given by her which 
must have cost immense sums ; others had heard it 
said in the ministerial offices that the Glueen was 
adverse to the sanction of the decrees. Count 
D'Estaing, upon being called, though the Queen had 
been his political opponent, said he knew nothing 
against her. M. Bailli, formerly president of the As- 
sembly, and also mayor of Paris, when asked if he 
knew "the woman Capet," said mournfully, and he 
appeared painfully affected, " Yes," and he bowed 
respectfully to her, " I have known Madame ;" but he 
declared that he could say nothing against her, and 
that certain declarations extorted from the young 
prince relative to the journey to Varennes were all 
false. The Jacobins were furious at this testimony ; 
he was assailed with outrageous reproaches from 
them ; and from which violent demonstration, he might 
judge the fate reserved for himself He was a prisoner 
at the time. 

The monsters Hebert and Simon were next called, 
and deponed that the dauphin had informed them that 
he had been initiated into improper practices by his 
mother. Simon testified that he had frequently, enter- 
ing the apartment of the young prince, surprised him 
in premature vices for his age — vices to which the boy 
was addicted ; that, upon questioning him, he asserted 
his mother had instructed him in these indulgences. 
For the purpose doubtless, said Hebert, of weakening 
thus early the physical constitution of her son, in 
order to secure herself the means of ruling him in 
case he should ever ascend the throne. 

The Q,ueen had heretofore replied distinctly and 
unequivocally to the charges brought gainst her ; but 
overwhelmed with horror at this atrocious falsehood, 
she remained silent. The audience, too, though wholly 
Jacobin, was disgusted at the accusation. Hebert and 
Simon nevertheless persisted in it. Being urged to 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 205 

answer, she said, with extraordinary emotion, "I 
thought human nature would excuse me from answer- 
ing such an imputation." Turning to the audience, 
with inexpressible dignity, she added, "I appeal to 
all mothers who hear me whether such a thing is pos- 
sible !"* 

After these depositions, several others were received 
respecting the expenses of the court, the Influence of 
the Q,ueen in public affairs, the scene of the 10th of 
August, and what had passed in the Temple ; and the 
most vague rumors, and most trivial circumstances, 
were eagerly seized upon as proofs of guilt. Marie 
Antoinette frequently repeated, during the trial, that 
there was no precise fact against her ; and that, though 
the wife of Louis XVI., she was not answerable for 
^ny of the acts of his reign.f Fouquier-Tinville never- 
theless declared her to be convicted, and in spite of 
the unavailing efforts and eloquence of her counsel, 
she was condemned to suffer the fate of her husband.| 
In answer to the question if she had anything further 
to say, she merely negatively shook her head. 

The trial had occupied two days. Conveyed back 
to the Conciergerie, she there passed in tolerable com- 
posure the night preceding her execution. Scarcely 
had her trial ended, when the drums were beating to 
arms in all the sections of Paris ; at sunrise, on the 
morning of the 16th, the armed force was moving, 
cannons getting placed at the extremities of the 
bridges, in the squares, crossways, all along from the 

* "Can there be a more infernal invention than that made against 
the Qneen by Hebert — namely, that she had an improper intimacy 
with her own son? He made use of this, as he subsequently boasted, 
jn order to prejudice the women against the Queen, and to prevent 
her execution from exciting pity." — Prudhomme. 

t " At first, the Queen, consulting her own sense of dignity, had 
resolved, on her trial, to make no other reply to the question of her 
judges than ' Assassinate me, as you have already assassinated my 
husband ' Afterwards, however, she determined to follow the exam- 
ple of the King, exert herself in her defence, and leave her judges 
without any excuse or pretext for putting her to death." — Weber, 

X Thiers. 



206 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

Palais-de-Justice (in which the trial had taken place,) 
to the Place de la Revolution. By ten o'clock, nume- 
rous patroles were circulating in the streets; and 
thirty thousand foot and horse drawn up under arms. 

At eleven o'clock, Marie Antoinette was brought 
out of the Conciergerie, placed on a tumbril, (cart,) 
with her arms tied behind her, in the same manner as 
an ordinary criminal. Though but thirty-eight years 
of age, sorrow had blanched her once beautiful hair, 
which was now grey ; her cheeks were pale and 
emaciated, and she bore the marks of being prema- 
turely old. In an undress of pique-blanc, (white,) 
accompanied by a constitutional priest, and escorted 
by numerous detachments of infantry and cavalry, 
passing through a great concourse of the populace^ 
she was taken by a circuitous route to the Place de la 
Revolution, that fatal spot where the guillotine had 
already destroyed so many lives, and where, ten 
months previously, Louis XVI. had perished. She 
appeared to regard with indifference the great crowd 
that lined the way as she passed, and there was visible 
neither abasement nor pride on her countenance. To 
the cries of " Vive la Republique" and " Down with 
Tyranny," she seemed to pay no heed.* She spoke 
but little to the ecclesiastic, but listened with calmness 
to his exhortations. The tri-color flags and streamers 
floating from the house-tops attracted, it is said, her 
attention at intervals ; it is also said, she noticed the 
inscriptions (on the fronts of the houses) of Liberty — 
Equality — and the like. 

On reaching the foot of the scaffold her eyes turned 
towards the Tuilleries, the home of her former gran- 
deur, and for the moment she gave signs of emotion. 
But she hastened to ascend the steps of the scaffold, 
and gave herself up to the executioner. At a quarter 
past twelve o'clock, the blade of the guillotine clanked 

* " She cast an indifferent look at the people who in other days 
had so often applauded her grace and beauty, and now as warmly 
applauded her execution." — Thiers. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 207 

down, severing her head from her body. Samson, the 
executioner, held up her head (as was his custom 
when he had sacrificed an illustrious victim) to the 
gaze of the multitude, who saluted it witft long- 
continued cries of " Vive la Republique !" * 

In the morning, a few hours previous to her execu- 
tion, she wrote a letter to the Princess Elizabeth. " To 
you, my dear sister, I now address myself for the last 
time. I have been condemned, not to an ignominious 
death — ^it is so only to the guilty — but to rejoin your 
brother. I weep only for my children; I hope that 
one day, when they have regained their rank, they 
may be reunited to you, and feel the blessing of your 
tender care. May my son never forget the last words 
of his father, which I now repeat from myself—' Never 
attempt to revenge our death.' I die true to the Cath- 
olic religion. Deprived of all spiritual consolation, I 
can only look to Heaven for pardon. I ask forgiveness 
of all who know me. I pray for forgiveness to all my 
enemies." f 

* Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Carlyle, etc. 

t Marie Antoinette, arch-duchess of Austria, daughter of the em- 
peror Francis I. and of Marie Therese, was born at Vienna in 1755. 
On the 16th of May, 1770, she married the dauphin of France, af- 
terwards Louis Xyi., and her arrival in France was celebrated with 
every demonstration of public joy. * * * * Her mind was naturally 
powerful, and had been carefully cultivated. 



19 



208 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

Terror. — Placards. — Proclamations. Power of the Jacobins — dis- 
tresses throughout the provinces — the Revolutionary army — the 
peasants pillaged, and* their sons forced into the army. Liberty! 
Equality ! Definition of suspected persons. Triumph of the Ja- 
cobins. Trial of the Girondins, Vergmaud — Brissot — the Giron- 
dins conducted back to the Conciergerie — their Last Supper — the 
Marseilles hymn— eloquence of Vergniaud — Valaze's dead body 
— the Girondins executed. Hardships endured by the other Giron- 
dins in the provinces — they are hunted by the Jacobins, and live 
in cellars, garrets and caves. Petion and Barbaroux. — Louvet. — 
The Duke of Orleans brought to trial — his conduct previous to his 
execution — Robespierre v^ishes to marry his daughter — his death 
on the 6th of November, 1793. Madame Roland brought to trial 
— her courageous demeanor on the death-cart — her beauty — her 
death. The suicide of her husband — he is found dead on the road 
between Rouen and Paris. M. Bailli brought to trial — his con- 
demnation — hatred of the Jacobins towards him — is pelted with 
mud by them on his way to execution — his death. Destruction of 
the royal tombs, of the ancient monuments, etc. Pache, Hebert 
and Chaumette. Christianity abolished, and the Worship of Rea- 
son established — grotesque and impious conduct of the Jacobins 
upon this occasion — the Goddess of Reason — ceremony in Notre 
Dame and all the churches of Paris — desecration of images, 
relics, and properties of the churches — the busts of Marat and 
Lepellitier. Sunday abolished — every tenth day a day of rest — 
the calendar altered — increase of vice — marriage no longer bind- 
ing—all charitable institutions suppressed. Robespierre's intrigues 
—his plots against Danton. Camiile Desmoulins. The winter of 
1793 in Paris — distress of the lower orders. The ambition of 
RobespierrS; etc. 

The Jacobin Club continued to dictate to the Conven- 
tion, and the latter by its decrees continued to spread' 
terror and desolation through France. That terrible 
period had now arrived when the history of the Re- 
public presented a daily repetition of robbery and 
murder. " Daily the great guillotine has its due. Like 
a black spectre, daily at eventide, glides the death- 
tumbril through the variegated throng of things. The 
variegated throng shudders at it, for the moment; 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 209 

next moment forgets it. The Aristocrats ! They were 
guilty against the Republic ; their death, were it only 
that their goods are confiscated, will be useful to the 
Republic : ' Vive la Repubhque !' "* Not a day passed 
that the Revolutionary Tribunal did not send victims 
to the scaffold, and the populace went to look on as a 
matter that had grown into a custom, and as a method 
of passing time. Placards and proclamations, issued 
by the municipality, were daily posted to the walls, 
denouncing plots and plotters, and the arrests and 
conliscations were continual. 

Throughout France the system of Terror was 
supported by swarms of commissaries and agents, 
whose business was to arrest aristocrats and persons 
suspected of being inimical to the Republic ; to find 
out where any treasure was concealed, for, in the 
alarm of tlie crisis and the insecurity of property, 
many persons buried their money; to bring accusa- 
tions against people who were rich ; to enforce the 
law that fixed the price (maximum) of provisions; 
and to procure recruits for the army, horses, carriages, 
and grain. " All prisons or houses of arrest in French 
land are getting crowded to the ridge-tile : forty-four 
thousand committees, like as many companies of reap- 
ers or gleaners, gleaning France, are gathering their 
harvest, and storing it in these houses. Harvest of 
Aristocrat tares !"* The life of a man was no longer 
considered of any importance, and guilt or innocence 
were scarcely inquired into. Throughout the whole 
country the Jacobins, of which there was one club or 
more, in every town and village, swayed the rule, and 
those who had no protectors among them were liable 
to fall, and those who had any enemies in them were 
certain of their fate unless they managed to escape 
into exile. And, indeed, most part of the people who 
had any property, were sure to be deprived of it, had 
they even friends among the Jacobins, for the tempta- 
tion of it could not be resisted where the facility of 

* Carlyle. 



210 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

becoming a man's heir was so great that you had only 
to accuse him, have him guillotined, and buy in upon 
easy terms, at pubhc sale, his confiscated effects. 
The only limit set to this practice was the fear of be- 
coming a proprietor, which could not fail to bring on 
the same fate sooner or later, so that in the end the 
danger of possessing property was the only thing that 
afforded any protection to the proprietor. 

To enforce obedience to the committees, a Revolu- 
tionary army, six thousand strong, (clothed in black, 
faced with red) perambulated the country; but so 
great was the dismay that force was not necessary; 
the few soldiers, at the command of the commission- 
ers, were found to be sufficient to exact the most 
absolute obedience. If grain was wanted, and the 
farmer refused to deliver it, he was shot at his own 
door. Were the sons demanded for. the army, and 
the affectionate father hesitated, the whole family 
were condemned as counter-revolutionists, dragged 
away or massacred, without process or delay, and the 
neighbors durst not show signs of grief, for that im- 
plied disapprobation, and they would be compelled to 
the same fate. 

These expeditions to compel the peasants to give up 
their grain and their sons, were nearly always attend- 
ed with pillage, and, whenever it suited the plunder- 
ers, with ravishment and murder. Imagine a detach- 
ment of this army arriving in a village, and placing a 
sentinel at the door of the house they were employed 
in searching. Imagine all the neighbors shutting their 
doors, and trembling till their turn should arrive, 
while the father, mother, and children were suffering 
those cruel vexations of which we have spoken, with- 
out daring either to resist or cry out, which, even if 
they did, was of no avail, and was certain to finish 
with the massacre of the whole. Blind submission 
alone screened the inhabitants from this last excess. * 

The miseries of the people throughout the country 

* Playfair. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 211 

were not a little augmented by numbers of false com- 
missaries, who committed the same excesses ; and as 
nobody durst ask a commissary to show his powers, 
these vexations went on without discovery or punish- 
ment at the time — though the impositions were subse- 
quently brought to light, — and punishment was not 
inflicted. The cries of "Liberty," and "Equality," 
never abated in the midst of all this misery ! Liberty 
— where it might be said, that there was not a man in 
France who did not rise in the morning under the 
painful sensation of vengeance to fear, or vengeance 
to gratify, and frequently of both. Equality— was 
there ever a more absolute despotism 1 

In Paris the municipality had arrogated to itself 
authority over all matters of police, provisions, com- 
merce, and religion. To all the sections of the capital, 
and throughout France, it had given instructions as to 
whom were to be considered as suspected persons, in 
the following definitions. " 1st, Those who in the as- 
semblies of the people, check their energy by crafty- 
addresses, turbulent cries, and threats ; 2nd, Those 
who, more prudent, talk mysteriously of the disasters 
of the public, deplore the lot of the people, and are 
always ready to propagate bad news with affected 
grief; 3d, Those who have changed their conduct 
and language according to events ; 4th, Those who 
pity the farmers and the greedy shopkeepers, against 
whom the law is obliged to take measures; 6th, Those 
who, though they have the words liberty, republic and 
country, continually in their mouths, associate with 
ci-devant nobles, priests, counter-revolutionists, aris- 
tocrats, and take an interest in their fate ; 6th, Those 
who have not taken an active part in the Revolution ; 
7th, Those who have received the republican consti- 
tution with indifference, and have expressed false 
fears concerning its establishment and duration ; 8th, 
Those who, though they have done nothing against 
liberty, have done nothing for it ; 9th, Those who do 
not attend their sections, and allege in excuse that 
they are no speakers, or that they are prevented by 

19* / 



212 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

business ; 10th, Those who speak contemj^tuously of 
the constituted authorities, of the popular authorities, 
of the defenders of liberty; Uth, Those who have 
signed counter-revolutionary petitions or frequented 
anti-civic societies and clubs; 12th, Those who are 
known to have been insincere, to have been partizans 
of La Fayette, and of those who marched to the 
charge in the Champs-de-Mars." 

Was ever any thing more inquisitorial than this 1 And 
with such a definition, could the number of the sus- 
pected fail to be unlimited 1 could blood cease to flow 
from the guillotine ? Every man, who chose to do so, 
set to work with denunciations and scandal ; mistrust 
and suspicion reigned ; peaceable men, tired of a con- 
test where the anonymous villain had the advantage, 
withdrew from public affairs, which were now left to 
the care of the abandoned and desperate. * 

The execution of Marie Antoinette highly elated the 
Jacobins. " Let these tidings be carried to Austria," 
said they ; " the Romans sold the ground occupied by 
Hannibal ; we strike off the heads that are dearest to 
the sovereigns who have invaded our territory." But 
this was merely the commencement of vengeance. 
The tribunal was now to proceed to the trial of the 
Girondins confined in the Conciergerie. The revolt 
in the southern provinces was laid to their charge. 
The imprisoned deputies, those who had voluntarily 
remained in Paris, whilst others fled, it was admitted 
were not those who had excited the insurrection ; but 
they had corresponded with the others, and were sup- 
porters of the same cause, it was alleged. Their letters 
had been intercepted, and, though these did not suffi- 
ciently prove intrigues, they proved enough for a 
tribunal instituted for the purpose of contenting itself 
with probability. All their moderation, their energetic 
protestations against the massacres of the 10th of 
August, and the September butcheries of 1792, all 
was construed into a vast conspiracy, of which civil 

♦Thiers; Playfair. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 213 

war had been the upshot. The trial lasted nine days, 
and Vergniaud and others of them eloquently defended 
themselves. 

The Jacobins, enraged at the tardiness of the tri- 
bunal, clamored in the galleries of the Convention, 
and Robespierre caused a decree to be passed, autho- 
rizing the jury, after three days discussion, to declare 
themselves sufficiently enlightened, and to proceed to 
judgment without further hearing. On the 30th of 
October, at midnight, the jury entered to pronounce 
their verdict — death. * The accused (there were 
twenty-two of them) were then brought in. On hear- 
ing the fatal word, Brissot dropped his arms, and his 
head drooped upon his breast. Sillery, who was a 
cripple, let his crutches fall, exclaiming, " This is the 
most glorious day of my life !" Vergniaud's whole 
figure wore an expression of pride and disdain. La- 
source exclaimed, "I die at a time when the people 
have lost their reason : you will die as soon as they 
recover it." Valaze stabbed himself, and perished in the 
presence of the court, who immediately ordered that 
his dead body should be borne on a tumbril to the place 
of execution, and be beheaded with the other prison- 
ers, f Assured of their fate, they all now embraced 
each other, and the gendarmes surrounded them, and 
they, were conducted back to the Conciergerie, singing 
the Marseillais Hymn as they went. 

Their last night was sublime. Vergniaud had been 
provided with poison ; he threw it away, that he might 
die with his friends. In the prison they continued 

* " Accordingly, at ten o'clock on the night of the 30th of Octo- 
ber, the Twenty-two, summoned back once more, receive informa- 
tion that the jury, feeling themselves convinced, have cut short, have 
brought in their verdict ; that the accused are found guilty, and the 
sentence on one and all of them is Death with confiscation of 
goods."— CarZ^/Ze. 

t " Some hopes had been conceived for the two young brothers, 
Ducas and Fronfrede, who had appeared to be less compromised, 
and who had attached themselves to the Girondins, not so much 
from conformity of opinion, as from admiration of their character 
and talents. But they were condemned with the others." — Thiers. 



214 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

singing the Marseillais hymn, which they applied by a 
slight variation to their own situation. The twenty- 
one of them took a last meal together, at which they 
were by turns, merry, serious and eloquent. Verg- 
niaud presided at this last supper. " Valaze, with 
bloody breast, sleeps cold in death ; hears not the 
singing." Vergniaud spoke of expiring liberty in the 
noblest terms of regret, and in strains of unpre- 
cedented splendor. * 

But on the morrow, the 31st of October, all Paris is 
out, collected to see them pass. The death-carts, 
Valaze's cold corpse stretched among the yet living 
Twenty-one, roll along. Bareheaded, hands bound ; 
in their shirt sleeves, coat flung loosely round the neck ; 
so fare the eloquent of France, bemurmured, beshout- 
ed. On their way they repeated the Marseillais Hymn. 
Reaching the Place de la Revolution, and having 
ahghted from their carts, they embraced one another, 
shouting 'Vive la Republique !' They then struck up 
the Marseillais air again, singing it as the heads of 
each other were successively struck off. Sillery first 
mounted the scaffold, perishing amid the song of those 
who were so rapidly to follow — then another and 
another, amid the song of the decreasing voices. 
" Such an act of music ; conceive it well ! The yet 

* "Vergniaud was the most eloquent speaker of the Gironde, 
When great occasions rose, he poured forth his generous thoughts in 
streams of eloquence which never have been equalled in the French 
Assembly. It was not like that of Mirabeau, broken and emphatic, 
but uniformly elegant, sonorous and flowing, swelling at times into 
the highest strains of impassioned oratory. He was humane, gentle, 
and benevolent. He had not the vigour requisite for the leader of a 
party in troublesome times." — Alison. " Vergniaud was an indolent 
inan, and required to be stimulated ; but when once fairly excited, 
his eloquence was true, forcible, penetrating, and sincere." — Dumont. 
"Vergniaud was born at Limoges in 1759. He projected the decree 
which pronounced the. suspension of the King, and the formation of 
the National Convention. He filled the chair on the day of Louis's 
sentence, and voted for his death. He was condemned to death aa 
a Girondin in 1793, and spent the night before his execution in dis- 
coursing with his friends- upon revolutions and governments."— 
Shoberl. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 215 

living chant there ; the chorus so rapidly wearing 
weak ! Samson's axe is rapid ! The chorus is wear- 
ing weak, the chorus is worn out ! Farewell forever, 
ye Girondins."* 

All of them followed Sillery's example, and died 
with the same dignity. In thirty-one minutes the exe- 
cutioner had despatched these illustrious victims, and 
thus destroyed in a few monients ^outh, beauty, vir- 
tue, talents ! " Valaze's dead head is lopped ; the 
sickle of the guillotine has reaped the Girondins all 
away ; the eloquent, the young, the beautiful and 
brave !" f They all died with the resolution of Ro- 
mans, protesting, with their last breath, their attach- 
ment to freedom and the Republic.l 

The other chiefs of the Girondists, who escaped to 
the provinces, fared no better. The Convention had 
outlawed them, and they were hunted by the Jacobins; 
they underwent innumerable dangers, were obliged 
to assume many disguises, and made escapes more 
wonderful even than those which romance has figured. 
Several kept together in their wanderings, and with 
them was Petion, formerly so popular as mayor of 
Paris. He had opposed some of the measures of 
Robespierre and the Jacobins, and so inveterately did 
Robespierre pursue him with denunciations, that he 
saw that by escape only could he preserve his head 
amid the many that were daily struck off by the guil- 
lotine. After his flight he was outlawed by the Con- 
vention. He, Barbaroux, Louvet, Gaudet, Salles, 
Buzot and Valady, passed months of concealment, 
hardships and suffering in the south. Of these seven, 
only Louvet escaped death, and in his memoirs he has 
left an interesting account of their miseries at this 
time. A sister of Gaudet kept them hid' at times in 
the loft of her house, at times in the cellar, and they 
were frequently necessitated to seek shelter in a cave 
at St. Emelion. Talhen, who was the commissioner at 
Bordeaux, had his spies continually on the search for 

* Carlyle. t Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Carlyle. X Alison. 



216 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

them, and so close was the pursuit in November 1793, 
that they determined to separate. They suffered much 
from the poverty of their circumstances — "apparel 
worn, purse empty; wintry November come; under 
Tallien and his guillotine, all hope now gone. Danger 
drawing ever nigher, difficulty pressing ever straiten 
Not unpathetic the farewell ; tall Barbaroux, cheeriest 
of brave men, stobps to clasp his Louvet ; ' In whatso- 
ever place thou findest my mother,' cries he, ' try to 
be instead of a son to her ; no resource of mine but 
I will share with thy wife, should chance ever lead me 
where she is.' " * 

Louvet set out for Paris, and, after many hair- 
breadth escapes, travelling as best he could, got there, 
joined his wife, thence to Switzerland, there to await 
better days. Gaudet, Salles and Valady, were soon 
taken, and died by the guillotine. Barbaroux, Buzot 
and Petion, wandered, and lurked in hiding-places, 
until the summer of the following year, 1794. One 
July morning, changing their hiding-place, as they had 
often to do, they observed a great crowd of country- 
people coming towards them, and supposing it to be a 
party of Jacobins in quest of them, Barbaroux drew 
a pistol, and shot himself dead. The crowd proved to 
be harmless villagers going to a village wake. A few 
days afterwards, Buzot and Petion were found in a 
corn-field, their bodies half devoured by wolves.f 

The Duke of Orleans was the next titled victim. He 
had some months previously been decreed under ac- 
cusation; he fled from the capital, but was arrested, 
and lay confined in prison at Marseilles, from which 
he was brought to Paris on the 3rd of November. He 

* Carlyle 

t " F. N. L. Buzot, bora 1760 at Evreux, an advocate, embraced 
the Revolution with warmth, made a deputy to the National As- 
sembly, opposed the despotism of the Parisian mob, and ended one 
of his speeches by threatening Paris with the sight of grass grow- 
ing in the streets if confusion should remain there much longer. 
Denounced as a Girondin, he made his escape from Paris, and was 
found, together with Petion, dead in a field, and half-eaten by wolves." 
Biographie Moderne. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 217 

was immediately tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal, 
and sentenced to die. Of all the victims of the Revo- 
lution not one was less regretted than this man. The 
emigrant nobility despised him, and the Jacobins sus- 
pected him. The part he had taken, was prompted 
more by hostility to the court than real enthusiasm in 
favor of the republic. His execution was fixed for the 
6th of November. On that morning he had a repast 
prepared for himself, and ate freely of oysters, cutlets 
and other edibles, and drank also the greater part of a 
bottle of claret. Three others were to be executed 
with him, and it is said they objected to enter the 
trumbril with a man of whom they entertained so 
execrable an opinion, and were flung in, neck and 
heels. His dress was a green frock coat, white waist- 
coat, yellow buckskins, and polished boots. Through 
street after street, slowly, and amid execrations, the 
tumbril rolled along. The populace halted him in front 
of the Palais-Royal, where he remained, by order of 
Robespierre it is said, a quarter of an hour. Robes- 
pierre had solicited the hand of the Duke's daughter in 
marriage ; a proposal scorned by the Duke ; and had 
promised him, if he w^ould relent in that extremity, to 
excite a tumult which should save his life. But de- 
praved as Egalite was, he had too much honorable 
feeling left to consent to such a sacrifice. He gazed 
on his Palais with a smile, and remained in expecta- 
tion of death without giving the expected signal of 
acquiescence, when he was permitted to continue his 
journey to the scaffold. Samson, the executioner, 
made a movement to draw off his boots. " Tush !" 
said the Duke, " they will come better off after; let us 
have done ; depechons-nous !" He met his death with 
stoical fortitude. The multitude applauded his exe- 
cution.* 

* Thiers ; Alison ; Montgalliard ; Carlyle. — He left a widow and 
four children ; three sons and a daughter. The eldest of these sons, 
was then twenty years of age, and served in the French army. He 
is at present the King of the French, raised to the throne by the 
Revolution of Paris, in July, 1830. He is now 73 years old, and is 



218 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

On the 8th of November, the beautiful and accom- 
plished wife of Roland was executed.* Condemned 
as an accomplice of the Girondins, she heard her sen- 
tence with a sort of enthusiasm, that excited a kind of 
religious admiration in all who saw her. Her defence, 
composed by herself the night before her trial, is one 
of the most eloquent and touching monuments of the 
revolution. She went to the scaffold dressed in white; 
conveyed in the same cart with a man whose firm- 
ness was not equal to her own. While passing along 
the streets, her whole anxiety seemed to be an endea- 
vour to support his courage. When they arrived at 
the foot of the scaffold, she had the generosity to re- 
nounce in his favor the privilege of being first exe- 
cuted. " Ascend first," said she ; " let me at least 
spare you the pain of seeing my blood flow." Turn- 
ing to the executioner, she asked if he would consent 
to that arrangement. He replied that his orders were 
that she should die first. " You cannot," said she, 
with a smile, " refuse a woman her last request, I am 
sure?" But Samson would not infringe his orders, 
and undismayed by the spectacle which immediately 
ensued, she calmly bent her head under the guillotine, 
perishing with the serenity she had evinced ever since 
her imprisonment. "Oh, Liberty! what crimes are 
being committed in thy name 1" was her exclamation, 

undoubtedly the greatest sovereign of this era. His whole life and 
character form a direct contrast to the career of his father, who was 
born at St. Cloud on the ]3th of April 1747, and rendered the tide of 
Due de Chartres, which he bore in his early life, notorious by its de- 
pravity. He was in stature below the middle size ; his features were 
regular and pleasing till libertinism and debauchery covered them 
with inflamed pustules. He was endowed with good natural abili- 
ties, though ignorant and credulous. In 1778, he was present at the 
battle off TJshant, and during the engagement concealed himself in 
the hold of the ship in which he was. This cowardice was made 
a subject of much merriment by the court, and laid the foundation of 
his hatred to the royal family. 

* " Although past the prime of life, she was a fine looking woman, 
tall, and of an elegant form ; an expression infinitelv superior to what 
is usually found in women, was seen in her large black eyes, at once 
foicible and mild." — Memoirs of a Prisoner. ■ 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 219 

a moment or two before she perished, as she cast her 
eyes upon the Statue of Liberty, that stood near the 
guillotine.* 

That her husband would not long survive her, she 
predicted, and her prophecy was speedily fulfilled. A 
few days afterwards he was found dead on the road 
between Paris and Rouen. Having heard the news of 
his wife's death, he embraced his kind friends at the 
latter place, left their house which had given him 
shelter, and "on the morrow morning, 16th of the 
month, ' some four leagues from Rouen,' there is seen 
sitting leant against a tree, the figure of a rigorous 
wrinkled man; stiff now in the rigour of death; a 
cane-sword run through his heart ; and at his feet this 
writing : ' Whoever thou art that discoverest me lying, 
respect my remains. They are those of a man who 
consecrated his life to the use of his country, and who 
died as he had lived, virtuous and unsullied. May my 
fellow-citizens embrace more humane sentiments! 
Not fear, but indignation, caused me to quit my re- 
treat, on learning that my wife had been murdered. I 
wished not longer to remain on an earth polluted with 
so many crimes.' "j 

Thu§, in that frightful delirium which had rendered 
genius,' virtue and courage suspected, all that was most 
noble and most generous in France was perishing 
either by suicide or the blade of the executioner. 
Among so many illustrious and courageous deaths, 
that of Bailli, the astronomer, first president of the 
National Assembly, and the first mayor of Paris, was 
both lamentable and sublime. He was of the moderate 
party, and the Jacobins were determined upon his 
death. His profound and extensive scientific re- 
searches, his great services in the cause of liberty, and 
his enlightened philanthropy, pleaded in vain before 
the Revolutionary Tribunal. The Jacobins were bit- 
ter against him because he had upon a memorable oc- 

* Alison; Lacretelle; Thiers, etc. 
t Alison; Carlyle; Thiers. 
20 



220 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

casion (17th of July 1791,) asserted the supremacy of 
the law, and a mob were dispersed in the Champs-de- 
Mars, through his orders, that the red flag should be 
unfurled, and those of his friend La Fayette, who gave 
the command to fire. "Doomed now for Royalism, 
Fayettism ; for that red-flag business of the Champs- 
de-Mars ; one may say, in general, for leaving his as- 
tronomy to meddle with the revolution." * 

He was to be executed in the Champs-de-Mars, the 
theatre of what was termed his crime. The Uth of 
November was the day fixed for his execution. The 
weather was cold and rainy. Conducted on foot, he 
manifested the utmost composure, amidst the in- 
sults of a barbarous populace, who howled around 
him, covering him with curses and mud. During the 
long walk from the Conceirgerie to the Champs-de- 
Mars, they waved the red-flag in his face. He was 
both old and feeble, and in no condition even physi- 
cally to encounter the long walk and sleety weather. 
During his passage he repeatedly fell, which would 
create boisterous shouts from the mob; and hisses, 
curses and mud would shower upon him. On reach- 
ing the foot of the scaffold, it might be supposed his 
sufferings were nearly over ; but one of the vindictive 
Jacobins, who had so assiduously persecuted him, cried 
out that the Field of the Foederation ought not to be 
stained with his blood. The crowd instantly rushed 
upon the guillotine, and began to take it down, for the 
purpose of erecting it on a dunghill upon the banks 
of the Seine; and, in their refinement of cruelty, they 
chose a spot opposite the house where Bailli had passed 
his life, and composed his works. 

While this taking down, removing, and re-erecting 
the guillotine was going on, they obliged the old man 
to walk several times around the Champs-de-Mars. 
Bareheaded, and with his hands pinioned behind him, 
he could scarcely drag himself along. They continued 
to pelt him with mud— some kicked him — others struck 
him with canes. As they thus paraded him, exhausted, 

* Thiers; Carlyle. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 221 

he would fall to the ground. They would lift him up. 
Rain and cold had communicated to his limbs an in- 
voluntary shivering. " Thou trembiest," said a sol- 
dier to him. " It is from the cold," replied Bailli. 
After he had been thus tormented for several hours, 
the red-flag was burned under his nose. He was then 
led to the bank of the river, where the guillotine was 
at length reared, delivered over to Samson, " and ano- 
ther illustrious scholar," says M. Thiers, " as well as 
one of the most virtuous men who ever honored our 
country, was taken from it." * Among the virtuous 
members of the first Assembly, there was no one who 
stood higher than Bailli. As a scholar and a man of 
science, he had long been in the very first rank of 
celebrity; his private morals were not only irreproach- 
able, but exemplary ; and his character and disposition 
had always been remarkable for gentleness, modera- 
tion and philanthropy. His popularity was at one 
time equal to that of any of the idols of the day ; and 
if it was gained by some degree of culpable indul- 
gence and unjustifiable zeal, it was forfeited at least 
by a resolute opposition to disorder, and a meritorious 
perseverance in the discharge of his duty. There is 
not perhaps a name in the whole annals of the Revo- 
lution, with which the praise of unaffected philan- 
thropy may be more safely associated.! 

Thus the good and great continued to perish. The 
limited nature of this book, does not admit of an indi- 

* Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Toulangeon, etc. 

t Edinburgh Review. — " Jean Sylvain Bailli, bom in Paris, 15th 
of September 1736. Passed his life in study, and wrote essays and a 
history of astronomy. Opposed the violent measures of the Jacobins 
during the Revolution. After the 17th of July, 1791, he perceived 
his credit sinking, resigned his office of mayor, and went over to 
England, whence he returned shortly after to Paris, trusting to spend 
the remainder of his days in retirement. He was, however, arrested 
in 1793, and condemned to death. After having been exposed to 
every species of ignominy in the Champs-de-Mars, he ran himself to 
the scaffold, which had been fixed upon a heap of dung. He died 
with great courage. He was tall, his face long and serious. There 
are several works on astronony by him." — Biographie Moderne. 



222 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

vidual detail of the distinguished persons who were 
guillotined during the Reign of Terror ; but the reader 
may imagine to himself the fact that "the whole 
country seemed one vast conflagration of revolt and 
vengeance. The shrieks of death were blended with 
the yell of the assassin, and the laughter of buffoons. 
Never were the finest affections more warmly excited, 
or pierced with more cruel wounds. Whole families 
were led to the scaffold for no other crime than their 
relationship : sisters for shedding tears over their bro- 
thers in the emigrant armies ; wives for lamenting the 
fate of their husbands ; innocent peasant-girls for danc- 
ing with the Prussian soldiers ; and a woman giving 
suck, and whose milk spouted in the face of her exe- 
cutioner at the fatal stroke, for merely saying, as a 
group were led to slaughter, ' Here is much blood shed 
for a trifling cause !"* 

Having massacred the great of the present, and in- 
sulted the illustrious of former ages — for the sepulchres 
of the kings, and the distinguished men, of France, re- 
nowned for their deeds in past times, were involved 
in one general ruin, an attack, and a demolition of 
them, being made upon all the remains of antiquity ; 
tombs were broken open, and the sculls of monarchs 
and heroes tossed about like footballs b)'' the profane 
multitude — nothing remained to the Jacobins but to 
direct their vengeance against Heaven itself Pache, 
Hebert, and Chaumette, the leaders of the munici- 
pality, publicly expressed their determination, " to de- 
throne the King of Heaven as well as the monarchs 
of the earth." f To accomplish this design, they pre- 

* Hazlitt. 

t "Jean Nicholas Pache, mayor of Paris in 1793. Having sur- 
vived the Reign of Terror, he was accused by the Directory of vari- 
ous arbitrary acts, but contrived to escape prosecution, and, quitting 
Paris in 1797, hved in retirement and obscurity."—" P. G. Chaumette, 
attorney of the municipality of Paris, born at Nevers in 1763 ; his 
father was a shoemaker ; after having been a cabin-boy, a steersman, 
a transcriber, and an attorney's clerk at Paris, he worked under the 
journalist Prudhomme, who describes him as a very ignorant fellow. 
He soon acquired great power in the capital, and in 1793 proposed 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 223 

vailed on Gobel, the constitutional bishop of Paris, to 
appear at the bar of the Convention, accompanied by 
some of the clergy of his diocese, and there abjure the 
Christian faith, declaring " that no other national re- 
ligion was now required but that of liberty, equality, 
and morality."* (Nov. 7th. 1793.) The ceremony was 
as follows. Gobe], with a bonnet-rouge (red cap) on 
his head; holding in his hand his mitre, crosier, cross, 
and ring, was introduced into the Convention, and 
thus addressed that body. " Born a plebian, a cure 
of Porentruy, sent by my clergy to the first Assembly, 
then raised to the archbishopric of Paris, I have never 
ceased to obey the people. I accepted the functions 
which that people bestowed upon me, and now, in 
obedience to it, I come to resign them. I suffered my- 
self to be made a bishop when the people wanted 
bishops. I cease to be so now when the people no 
longer desire to have any." f He then laid on the table 
his episcopal decorations, and received a fraternal em- 
brace from the president of the Convention. The 
priests, accompanying him, followed his example. All 
the sections of Paris, and the members of the muni- 
cipality, came, one after another, to declare that they 
renounced the errors of superstition, and that they 
acknowledged no other worship than that of reason. 

This was speedily followed by the desecration of all 
the churches; the edifices and their treasures were 
seized upon as the property of the Republic ; images 
of the saints and the Virgin Mary were taken down ; 
all the robes and decorations of the priests were 
seized upon. Under the direction of Chaumette, the 
treasures were heaped in chests, to be taken to the 
Convention, thence to the municipality, and thence to 

the formation of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and the tax on the 
rich. He contrived the Festivals of Reason, and the orgies and pro- 
fanations which polluted all the churches in Paris. He procured an 
order for the demolition of all monuments of religion and royalty. 
He was executed, by order of Robespierre, in 1794." Biographie 
Moderne. 

* Alison. t Thiers. 

20* 



224 ) THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the mint, there to be melted down for the public trea- 
sury. 

Nov. 10th, a procession was formed, for the purpose 
of going in a body to the Convention, and the rabble, 
indulging in their fondness for the burlesque, carica- 
tured in the most ludicrous manner the ceremonies of 
religion. Men, wearing surplices and capes, came 
singing hallelujahs, and dancing the carmagnole, to 
the bar of the Convention ; there they deposited the 
host, the boxes in which it was kept, and the statues 
of gold and silver; they made burlesque speeches, and 
sometimes addressed the most singular apostrophes to 
the saints themselves,— for instance, " O you, instru- 
ments of fanaticism, blessed saints of all kinds, be at 
length patriots, serve the country by going to the mint, 
and give us in this world that felicity which you wanted 
to obtain for us in the other !" A veiled female, ar- 
rayed in blue drapery, was next introduced to the 
Convention as the Goddess of Reason ; she wore the 
red liberty cap, holding a pike in her hand, and was 
borne on a palanquin, with young girls, in tri-color 
ribands, dancing before her. The busts of Marat and 
Pelletier were also borne aloft. Madame Mom ore 
(the woman who represented the goddess, and, before 
her marriage Mademoiselle Candeille of the opera, 
with whose charms most of the persons present were 
acquainted from her appearance on the stage, while 
the experience of some individuals was farther ex- 
tended,) was carried around the benches of the Con- 
vention, and received the homage of the deputies. 

After which, the members of the Convention, and 
the great throng of the populace, formed in procession 
again, and proceeded, with music, banners, flags, and 
pageantry, to the ancient church of Notre Dame — a 
church no longer, but the Temple of Reason. On the 
high altar of Notre Dame, Madame Momoro took her 
seat ; a hymn to liberty, words by Chenier, music by 
Gossec, was chaunted ; round the choir stood tables 
overloaded with bottles, sausages, pork-puddings, pas- 
tries, and other meats. The guests flowed in and out, 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 225 

through all doors ; out of doors were mad multitudes, 
dancing round bonfires made of chapel balustrades 
and wooden images of the Crucifixion and of the 
saints. 

In all the churches of Paris the same scene was 
enacted — they were all dedicated by the Jacobins as 
temples of Reason, and, in all of them, busts of Marat 
and Lepelletier were placed in the niches from which 
the saints had been pulled down. Orators harangued, 
and pointing to the busts, exclaimed, " These are not 
gods made by men, but worthy citizens assassinated 
by the slaves of kings !" Prom the pulpit, these ora- 
tors preached atheism, and denounced any worship 
but that of Reason. Marat was universally deified, 
and even the instrument of death was sanctified by 
the name of the Holy Guillotine. Everywhere was 
the inscription to be seen — Death is an Eternal Sleep. 
The comedian, Monert, in the church of St. Roche, 
carried his impiety to its height. " God, if you exist," 
said he, " avenge your injured name ! / bid you de- 
fiance! You remain silent. You dare not launch 
your thunders. Who after this will believe in your 
-existence V * 

This impious and ridiculous mummery had a certain 
fashion ; and the installation of the Goddess of Reason 
was renewed and imitated throughout the nation, in 
such places where the inhabitants desired to show 
themselves equal to all the heights of the Revolution. 
The churches were closed against priests and wor- 
shippers ; baptism ceased ; the bUrial service was no 
longer heard ; the sick received no communion ; the 
dying no consolation. The village bells were silent: 
Sunday was obliterated.! In lieu of the Sabbath and 

* Thiers ; Alison ; Lacretelle ; Carlyle ; Scott. 

t To obliterate as far as possible all former recollections, a new 
era was established ; they changed the divisions of the year, the 
names of months and days. The ancient and venerable institution 
of the Sabbath was abolished ; the period of rest was fixed at every 
tenth day ; time was measured by divisions of ten days ; and the 
year was divided into twelve equal months, beginning on the 22d of 



226 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

the services of the Church, the licentious fetes of the 
new worship were performed by the most abandoned 
females. On every tenth day a revolutionary leader, 
or Jacobin orator, ascended the pulpit, and preached 
the doctrines of atheism to the bewildered audience. 
The most sacred relations of life, were at the same pe- 
riod, placed on a new footing, suited to the extrava- 
gant ideas of the times. Marriage was declared a 
civil contract, binding only during the pleasure of the 
contracting parties. Divorce immediately became 
general ; the corruption of manners reached a pitch 
unknown during the worst days of the monarchy ; 
the vices of the marquises and countesses of Louis 
XV. descended to the shopkeepers and artizans of 
Paris. So indiscriminate did concubinage become, 
that, by a decree of the Convention, bastards were 
declared entitled to an equal share of the succession 
with legitimate children. In the general havoc, even 
the establishments of charity were not suffered to 
escape. The revenues of the hospitals and humane 
institutions throughout France were confiscated, and 
their domains sold as part of the national property. 
Soon the terrible effects of suppressing these institu- 
tions was felt ; beggary advanced with frightful steps ; 
and the condition of the helpless poor was lamen- 
table.* 

Robespierre opposed the worship of Reason, and 
declared his belief in the existence of a Supreme 
Being ; he, cunningly preparing the way as he was 
to raise himself at the head of the government in his 
own person, saw that the measures of Hebert, Chau- 
mette and others were too violent for even the entire 

September. Vendimiare — September. Brumaire — October. Fri- 
maire — November. Nivose — December. Pluviose — ^January. Ven- 
fose— February. Germinal — March FlorM— April Prairial — 
May. Messidor — June, Thermidor— July. Fructidor — August. 
All titles had long since been abolished, and even Monsieur and 
Madame was no longer permitted— it was now simply Citoyen and 
Citoyenne, for Mr. and Mrs. 
* Scott; Alison; Dupin; Lacretelle; Liancourt; Burke. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 227 

Jacobin approval ; he hypocritically maintained his 
reputation for incorruptibility, and watched with plea- 
sure the growing unpopularity of Danton and other 
rivals of his who peculated the public funds and rioted 
in luxury. Attacks upon character, and mutual re- 
criminations, daily took place between the deputies in 
the Convention. There were many rumors in circu- 
lation to the discredit of Danton, who retired from any 
participation in public matters. It was by the advice 
of Robespierre himself that Danton retired into seclu- 
sion. " A tempest is brewing," said he ; " the Jacobins 
dislike your manners; your voluptuous and lazy 
habits are at variance with their energy ; withdraw, 
then, for a season ; trust to a friejid who will watch 
over your dangers, and warn you of the first moment 
to return." * 

The attached friends of Danton were Philipeaux, 
Camille Desmouiins, Fabre-d'Eglantine, Lacroix, and 
General Westermann. These were now termed the 
moderate party of the Mountain, who demanded that 
an end should be put to the revolutionary government, 
and to the dictatorship of the committees. In brief, 
they wished to stop the Reign of Terror, which they 
said had answered its purpose, and that the daily 
shedding of blood was no longer a matter of necessity 
as it had been, but useless murder. They contended 
that the internal enemies of the Republic had been 
repressed, and instead of the anarchy, and insecurity 
of life, which prevailed, it was their desire to establish 
legal authority and the independence of the Conven- 
tion; they wished to put down the faction of the 
municipality ; to stop the Revolutionary Tribunal ; to 
clear the prisons, which were filled with the suspected, 
of which numbers were daily perishing by the guillo- 
tine. This scheme of clemency, humanity, and law- 
ful government was earnestly urged by Camille Des- 

* Danton disapproved of the condemnation of the Girondins, i. e. 
the death of them, and reproaches began to shower around him. To 
avoid the threatened storm, he had retired to Arcis-sur-Aube, and 
there appeared to forget everything in ieposG.—Mignet. 



228 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

moulins in his paper of the " Old Cordelier," and he 
used the weapons of wit and ridicule against Hebert, 
who in his " Pere Duchesne" violently contended for 
the continued proscription and extermination of the 
aristocrats. In fact, Hebert was now looked up to as 
the leader of all ultra movements. The wily Robes- 
pierre saw that by making a sacrifice of both the 
Hebertists and Dantonists, he could at once gain the 
point of his ambition. For this purpose he resolved, 
at the same time that he should cut off Hebert, Chau- 
mette, and the anarchists, to strike with equal seventy 
against Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and the mode- 
rate party. By so doing, he would keep up the 
appearance of even-handed justice, establish the 
supremacy of the Committee of Public Safety, and 
remove the* only rival (Danton) that stood between 
him and sole dominion. The friends of Danton, per- 
ceiving the ambitious designs of Robespierre, recalled 
him from his retirement, and he arrived in Paris to 
defend himself and his party. But the Committee of 
Public Safety, with Robespierre at the head of it, was 
all-powerful; St. Just, a powerful demagogue, and 
Henriot, commander of the National Guards, were 
both the tools of Robespierre ; the Jacobins began to 
regard him as the only pure patriot of all their dis- 
tinguished leaders, and, in fact, his will was becoming 
the law.* 

It was now the December of 1793 — winter — and pro- 
visions were scarce in the capital. The sellers evaded 
the maximum, or fixed price, by selling all the best of 
their things for high prices to the rich,"and giving the 
offal to the mass of the people at the maximum. Dis- 
satisfaction, and impatience of this evil, was at its 
height ; tumults in the markets were constantly occur- 
ring.! Politically and socially, we see the country in 
a condition wretched beyond all parallel in the history 
of nations ! Amidst all these distresses the ambitious 

AFison; Mignet; Thiers; Lacretelle; Toulangeon. 
t Thiers. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 229 

Robespierre now urged on his secret operations to 
work the downfall of the Hebertists and Dantonists. 
Flattery for the people in a mass, and cruelty in detail 
— such were his means. He was methodically and 
ambitiously cruel, but not from any enjoyment that he 
had in the slaughter of his fellow-men. The Hebert- 
ists, however, seemed to have enjoyed cruel actions, 
and kept the axe of the guillotine employed merely 
for the sake of a fiendish pleasure. Robespierre never 
gave signs of such a disposition; cool, interested 
cruelties were what he excelled in; he would have 
sacrificed three-fourths of the human race to have 
reigned over those who remained, but it would not 
have given him any pleasure to assist at their execu- 
tion. The cool, calculating murderer is, however, the 
most terrible of all, when he has it in his power, and 
finds it his interest to be cruel ; for he does not even 
take the pains to think what it costs humanity to 
gratify his views. It was by the method of his cruelty 
that Robespierre was enabled to carry out his plans. 
The Hebertists went without order, and sometimes 
ceased their crimes for a moment ; but Robespierre 
systematically and surely worked the downfall and 
death of all his enemies, of all his rivals, and of all 
those whose reputation or property gave them any 
share of importance. This has been fully proved 
since, for as each faction of the Revolution fell, its 
crimes were brought to light. 



21 



230 THE REIGN OF TERROR* 



CHAPTER IX. 

The French armies. Napoleon Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon. 
The Jacobins— the committee of Public Safety — Robespierre's 
policy — nineteen of the Hebertists guillotined — Danton in the Con- 
vention — interview between Robespierre and Danton — Danton, 
Desmoulins, and others arrested — speech of Legendre— speech of 
Robespierre — trial of Danton and his friends — Danton's conduct 
before the tribunal — the first day of the trial — the second — the 
third— condemnation of the Dantonists — conduct of Danton on 
the scaffold, etc. Robespierre now reigns alone — forty, sixty and 
eighty persons daily executed in Pans— Madame Dubarri — the 
Duchess de Grammont — the Princess Elizabeth. The Reign of 
Terror in all its horrors ! Extracts from the List of the Con- 
demned. Disgust of the inhabitants in consequence of the execu- 
tions — the prisons filled — an aqueduct dug to drain off the blood 
from the guillotine — four men daily employed in emptying the 
blood into a reservoir. An attempt to assassinate Robespierre by 
Cecille Renault — attempt to assassinate CoUot d'Herbois. Festi- 
val of ihe Supreme Being, on the 8th of June 1794 — pride of 
Robespierre — he is suspected of aspiring to a dictatorship — his 

Slans are thwarted by his colleagues in the Committee — he absents 
imself from their deliberations, and surrounds himself with his 
Jacobin followers at the club — St Just. — Robespierre in the Con- 
vention — at the club — David, the painter. — Henriot — The 27th of 
July — St. Just in the tribune — Robespierre attacked in the Con- 
vention — his efforts to speak — the cries of Down with the Tyrant ! 
— thrilling scene — Robespierre arrested — Henriot on horseback — 
all Paris in alarm — night — the Hotel- de-Ville — Robespierre rescued 
— scene on the Place de Greve — he and his accomplices retaken 
— their execution, etc. Jacobinism in the United States. Paris 
after the fall of Robespierre — Prudhomme's account of the victims 
— society — Napoleon Bonaparte — remarks, etc., etc. 

Prom the spring of 1793, the Republic had been at 
war not only with Austria, Prussia, and Piedmont, but 
also with Spain and England ; against all of which she 
contended, and was now beginning to be victorious. 
On the 18th of March occurred the battle of Neen- 
winden, in which the French remained masters of the 
field. On the 8th of June the ports of France were 
blockaded by the English. On the 24th of July the 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 231 

garrison of Mayence capitulated to the King of 
Prussia, and on the 28th, Valenciennes, after sustain- 
a bombardment of forty-one days, was surrendered to 
the Duke of York. The garrison, consisting of seven 
thousand brave soldiers, marched out with the honors 
of war. Early in September, the Duke of York laid 
siege to Dunkirk, where he was attacked by the 
French, who completely defeated him, and he was 
obliged to precipitately retreat. [Sep. 8th.] On the 
i5th of October, the French were victorious at Wat- 
tignies, and on the 16th the blockade of Maubeuge 
was raised. 

But the most remarkable event in the military his- 
tory of 1793, was the siege of Toulon, not so much 
from its importance, as from its first bringing to light 
the talents of Napoleon Bonaparte. Instead of making 
a regular attack upon the main fortification, he pro- 
posed to get possession of the prominent points com- 
manding the harbor, which would render it untenable 
to the English fleet. Were this once effected, the 
garrison, he knew, would not hold the town. Accord- 
ingly his plan was acted upon; the important posts 
designated by him were captured, and as the cannon 
from them reached the fleet, the evacuation of the 
town was decided upon. The English, in departing, 
set fire to the magazines, and to the French fleet ; a 
melancholy spectacle to the citizens of Toulon, an 
exasperating one to their republican conquerors. 
The circumstances of the siege were, however, useful 
to the cause of the latter. It proved an example to 
awe all towns and parties from mounting the white 
flag of the Bourbons, or receiving under any pretext^ 
the enemies of their country within their walls. It* 
was on the 20th of December that the English evacu- 
ated Toulon. 

In the meantime, the victorious Jacobins were 
growing daily more divided among themselves. 
The National Convention was no longer aught than 
a nominal representation, a passive instrument of 
terror. On the ruins of its independence we see that 



232 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

monstrous dictatorship, the Committee of Public Safe- 
ty, with the Revolutionary Tribunal at its disposition, 
and Robespierre the presiding genius of the whole. 
Terror isolated and struck with stupor the deputies 
as much as the mass of the citizens. The Hebertists 
continued to demand the continuance of the Revolu- 
tionary times and habits, and exclaimed against mode- 
ratism as their ruin. The Dantonists, who leaned 
to the side of humanity, and now took their stand 
against the anarchists, were unfortunately brought to 
this position by no honorable path. This party was 
formed of successful plunderers — of those who had 
enriched themselves in the Revolution, who loved 
pleasure and luxury, and who thought the time was 
come for enjoyment. But extermination of the aristo- 
crats was the sentiment of the Jacobin club, and of 
the talking majority. Robespierre could not do 
otherwise than adopt and lead this opinion, the Jaco- 
bins being his support, the chief source of his popu- 
larity as a demagogue. But then, as a member of the 
government, he had to repress the anarchists ; and the 
difficulty was to refute them, and repulse them, without 
incurring the suspicion of moderatism. His position 
was extremely precarious; but the subtle tyrant, 
whilst obliged to denounce and menace the anarchists, 
cleansed himself of the crime of moderation by en- 
forcing measures of blood and keeping the guillotine 
in action. At the same time he was preparing the 
means, and watching an opportunity, to deliver him- 
self from the dilemma by crushing both parties. He 
struck the first blow at the Hebertists, and in March 
1794, they were arrested as conspirators against the 
Fepublic, condemned, and on the 24th of the month, 
nineteen of them were guillotined. This was quickly 
followed by the arrest of Danton and his friends. 

For sometime past, seated opposite to that tribune 
where the members of the Committee of Public Safety 
took their places in the Convention, Danton wore some- 
what of a threatening, and at the same time contempt- 
uous, air. His attitude— his expressions, w^hich ran from 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 233 

mouth to mouth — his connections — all proved that, after 
seceding from the government, he had set himself up' 
for its censor, and that he kept himself aloof as if for 
the purpose of obstructing it by his great reputation. 
This was not all. Though Danton had lost his 
popularity, he still retained a reputation for bold- 
ness and for extraordinary political genius. Robes- 
pierre saw that, if Danton should be sacrificed, 
there would be left not one rallying name out of the 
committee ruled by himself, and that his colleagues in 
the committee were only of secondary importance in 
the eyes of the people ; that but two great names now 
remained — Robespierre and Danton — sacrifice the 
latter, and Robespierre reigned alone. He was, 
moreover, exhorted to this sacrifice by all his col- 
leagues. Couthon and Collet d'Herbois were aware 
that they were despised by Danton, and in him, Bil- 
laud-Varennes, cold, vulgar and sanguinary, found 
something grand and overwhelming. St. Just, dog- 
matic, austere and proud, felt an antipathy to the 
generous and easy revolutionist, and perceived that if 
Danton were dead, he should become the second per- 
sonage of the republic. 

Rumors circulated that the Dantonists were about 
to be apprehended. Mutual friends were desirous of 
reconciling Robespierre and Danton, and an interview 
between the two took place at the house of the latter. 
Danton complained violently, but Robespierre was 
reserved. "I know," said Danton, "all the hatred 
which the committee bears me, but I do not fear it." — 
" You are wrong," replied Robespierre ; " they have 
no evil intentions against you, but it is good to explain 
oneself" — "Explain oneself!" retorted Danton, "for 
that, good faith is necessary ;" and, observing Robes- 
pierre to assume a grave air at these words, " With- 
out doubt," added he, " it is necessary to suppress the 
royalists ; but we ought only to strike blows which 
are useful to the Republic ; and it is not necessary to 
confound the iniiocent with the guilty." — "Ah! who 
has told you," sharply rejoined Robespierre, " that we 
have caused an innocent person to perish f" Where- 
21* 



234 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

upon DantoR, turning to one of his friends who had 
accompanied him, asked with a bitter smile, " What 
say youT Not an innocent perished?" After these 
words they separated. All the bonds of friendship 
were broken.* Mutual friends still interfered to bring 
about a reconciliation. They reminded Robespierre 
of the friendship he had formerly testified for Danton ; 
he hypocritically replied that he could not do anything 
either for or against Danton ; that justice was there to 
defend innocence ; that, for his part, his whole life had 
been a continual sacrifice of his aflfections to his coun- 
try ; and that, if his friends were guilty, he should 
sacrifice with regret, but like all the others to the 
good of the republic. 

Suddenly, on the 2nd of April, 1794, JDanton, Des- 
moulins, Philipeaux and Lacroix, were arrested at 
night, by order of the Committee, and conveyed to 
the Luxembourg. By morning the tidings had spread 
throughout Paris, and produced a kind of toi-por. 
The members of the Convention met and preserved a 
silence, mingled with consternation. The Committee, 
which always made the Assembly wait for it, and 
which had the insolence as well as the strength of 
power, had not yet arrived. Legendre, who was not 
of sufficient importance to be apprehended with his 
friends, was eager to speak. "Citizens," said he, 
"four members of this Assembly were last night 
arrested. I know that Danton is one of them; the 
names of the others I know not; but whoever they 
are, I move that they be heard at the bar. Citizens, I 
declare that I believe Danton to be as pure as myself, 
and I believe no one has anything to lay to my 
charge. I shall not attack any of the committees of 
pubhc welfare and of general safety, but I have a right 
to fear that personal animosities and individual p^as- 
sions may wrest liberty from men who have rendered it 
the greatest and the most beneficial services. The man 
who, in September '92, saved France by his energy, 
deserves to be heard, and ought to be permitted to 

* Thiers; Mignet,etc. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 235 

explain himself, when he is accused of having betrayed 
his country." 

Robespierre, having just arrived, ascended the tri- 
bune. " From the disturbance," said he, " for a long 
time unknown, which prevails in this Assembly, from 
the agitation produced by the preceding speaker, it is 
evident that the question under discussion is one of 
great interest, that the point is to decide whether a 
few men shall this day get the better of the country. 
But how can you so far forget your principles as to 
propose to grant this day to certain individuals what 
you have previously refused to others, viz., to hear 
them at the bar of the Convention'? Why is this 
difference in favor of some men 1 What care I for the 
praise that people bestow on themselves and their 
friends? Too much experience has taught us to dis- 
trust such praise. The question is not whether a man 
has performed this or that patriotic act, but what has 
been his whole career. Legendre pretends to be igno- 
rant of the names of the persons arrested. They are 
known to the whole Convention. His friend Lacroix 
is one of them. Why does Legendre affect ignorance 
of this 1 Because he knows that it is impossible, with- 
out impudence, to defend Lacroix. He has mentioned 
Danton, because he conceives, no doubt, that to his 
name is attached a privilege. No — we will have no 
privileges! We will have no privileges! We will 
have no idols !" (A burst of applause.) " In what re- 
spect is Danton superior to La Fayette, to Dumouriez, 
to Brissot, to Fabre, to Chabot, to Hebert? What is 
said of him that may not be said of them ] And yet 
have you spared them"? Men talk to you of the despo- 
tism of the committees, as if the confidence the people 
have bestowed on you, and which you have trans- 
ferred to these committees, were not a sure guarantee 
of their patriotism. They affect doubts ; but I tell you, 
whoever trembles at this moment is guilty, for inno- 
cence never dreads the public surveillance." (Fresh 
applause.) "And in me," continued Robespierre, 
" they have endeavoured to excite terror, aiming to 



236 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

make me believe that in meddling with Danton the dan- 
ger may reach myself. They have written to me ; the 
friends of Danton have sent me letters, have beset me 
with their speeches ; they conceived that the remem- 
brance of an old connexion, that an ancient faith in 
false virtues, would induce me to slacken my zeal and 
my passion for liberty ! On the contrary, I declare 
that if Danton's dangers were ever to become my own, 
that consideration would not stop me for a moment. 
It is here that we all ought to have some courage and 
some greatness of soul. Vulgar minds, or guilty men, 
are always afraid to see their fellows fall, because, 
having no longer a barrier of culprits before them, 
they are left exposed to the light of truth ; but, if there 
exist vulgar spirits, there are heroic spirits also in this 
Assembly, and they will know how to brave all false 
terrors! Besides, the number of the guilty is not 
great. Crime has found but few partizans among us, 
and, by striking off a few heads, the country will be 
delivered." * 

Robespierre had acquired assurance and skill to say 
what he meant, and never had he shown more skill or 
more perfidy than on this occasion. To talk of the 
sacrifice which he had made in forsaking Danton, to 
make a merit of it, to take to himself a share of the 
danger, if there was any, and to cheer the cowards of 
the Convention by talking of the small number of the 
guilty, was the height of hypocricy and address. He 
prevailed, and it was unanimously decided that the 
four deputies arrested in the night should not be heard 
in their defence at the bar of the Convention, but be 
tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. These unfortu- 
nate men, as we have said, had been conveyed to the 
Luxembourg. "Us! arrest us!" said Lacroix to 
Danton, "I never should have thought it !"—" I had 
been warned of it," replied Danton.— "And knowing 
it, thou hast not acted!" exclaimed Lacroix— " the 
effect of thine accustomed indolence ; it has undone 

* Thiers. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 237 

US !"— " But I did not believe," said Danton, " that they 
would ever dare execute their design ;" and he was 
as usual, calm, proud, and jovial. Camille Desmoulins 
was astonished and depressed. Philipeaux appeared 
moved and elevated by the danger. Herault-Sechelles, 
who had been sent to the Luxembourg gome days be- 
fore them, ran out to meet his friends, and cheerfully 
embraced them. "When men do silly things," said 
Danton, " the best thing they can do is to laugh at 
them." Then perceiving Thomas Paine, (also a 
prisoner) he said to him, " What thou hast done for 
the liberty of America, I have attempted to do for 
France; I have been less fortunate, but not more 
guilty. They are sending me to the scaffold— well, 
my friends, we must go to it gaily." * 

* " Lacroix, condemned to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal 
in 1794, was originally a country lawyer; was the accomplice of 
Danton, acquired wealth, and long held a secret correspondence with 
Dumouriez, whom he pretended to denounce." — Mercier. "Pierre 
Philipeaux, a lawyer, a deputy to the Convention, voted for the King's 
death. He was afterwards sent into La Vendee to reorganize the 
administration of Nantes, where he was involved in a contention with 
some of the representatives sent into the same country, which ended 
in his recall to Paris. He was condemned to death by the Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal, in the 35th year of his age. Philipeaux was an 
honest and enthusiastic repubhcan." — Biographie Moderne. ''M. J. 
Herault de Sechelles, born at Paris in 1760 ; began his career at the 
bar by holding the office of the King's advocate at the Chatelet. In 
the house of Madame de Pohgnac, where he visited, he met the 
Queen (Mane Antoinette,) who, delighted with his conversation, 
promised to befriend him. He embraced the Revolution, was a 
member of the Convention, was absent from Paris during the 
King's trial, but wrote a letter to the Convention declaring that 
Louis Capet deserved death. He was subsequently a zealous sup- 
porter of the Mountain faction, but having made himself obnoxious 
to Robespierre, he was sentenced to death in 1793." — Biographie 
Moderne. " Thomas Paine, an Englishman, born in 1737, the son of 
a Quaker. In 1774 he went to America, and became editor of the 
Pennsylvania Magazine, took an active part in the hostilities between 
the Colonies and Great Britain, and published his celebrated pam- 
phlet " Common Sense," for which the legislature of Pennsylvania 
voted him ^500. He afterwards embarked for France, and, after 
visiting Paris, went to England, where he was prosecuted for his 
well-known " Rights of Man," but escaped to France, was chosen 



238 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

On the following day Danton and fourteen others 
were transferred to the Conceirgerie, where Lacroix 
expressed his astonishment at the number and 
wretched state of the prisoners. " What !" said Dan- 
ton, "did not the daily cart-loads of victims teach 
you what was passing in Paris 1" 

On the 2nd of April they were all brought before 
Pouquier-Tinville. The crowd collected to see the ac- 
cused was immense. A spark of that interest which 
Danton had once excited was rekindled at sight of 
him. Fouquier-Tinville, the judges, the jurors, were 
embarrassed in his presence. His assurance, his 
haughtiness, awed them, and he appeared rather to be 
the accuser than the accused.* When asked the usual 
questions as to his age and his place of abode, he 
proudly replied that he was thirty-four years old, that 
himself would soon be nothing, but his name would 
live in the Pantheon of history. 

" Danton," said the president, " the Convention ac- 
cuses you of having conspired with Mirabeau, with 
Dumouriez, with Orleans, with the Girondins, with 
foreigners, and with the faction which wants to rein- 
state Louis XVII." 

" My voice," replied Danton, " which has been raised 
so often for the cause of the people, will have no diffi- 
culty in repelling that calumny. Let the cowards who 
accuse me show their faces, and I will cover them with 
infamy. Let the committees come forward ; I will not 
answer but in their presence ; I need them for accu- 
sers and for witnesses. Let them appear. For the 
rest, I care little for you or your judgment. I have 
already told you that nothingness will soon be my 

a member of the National Convention, and lost his popularity with 
the Jacobins by voting against the death of Louis XVI. and was 
committed a prisoner to the Luxembourg. On the fall of Robespierre 
he was released, and remained in France till 1802, when he again 
embarked for the United States, where he died in 1809, aged 72." 
Biographie Moderne. 

* " Danton, calm and indifferent, amused himself during his trial 
by throwing little paper-pellets at his judges "—Hazliu 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 239 

asylum. Life is a burden ; take it from me. I long to 
be delivered from it." 

"Danton," said the president, "audacity is the 
quality of guilt, calmness that of innocence." 

At this expression, Danton replied : "Individual au- 
dacity ought, no doubt, to be repressed ; but that na- 
tional audacity of which I have so often set the 
example, which I have so often shown in the cause 
of liberty, is the most meritorious of all virtues. That 
audacity is mine. It is that which I have employed 
for the republic against the cowards who accuse me. 
When I find that I am so basely calumniated, how can 
I contain myself 1 It is not from such a revolutionist 
as Danton that you may expect a cold defence ! Men 
of my temper are inappreciable in revolutions. Upon 
their brow is impressed the spirit of liberty !" As he 
uttered these words, he shook his head, and defied the 
tribunal. His formidable countenance produced a pro- 
found impression. A murmur of approbation escaped 
from the crowd. "I!" continued Danton — "/ ac- 
cused of having conspired with Mirabeau, Dumouriez, 
Orleans ! Oh, thou cowardly St. Just,* thou wilt have 
to answer to posterity for thy accusation against the 
staunchest supporter of liberty ! In going through 
this catalogue of horrors" he added, holding up the 
act of accusation, "I feel my whole frame shudder !" 
One of the accusations was that he had hid himself on 
the 10th of August. " Where," he exclaimed, " are 
the men who had occasion to urge Danton to show 
himself on that day 1 Where are the privileged beings 
from whom he borrowed energy? Let my accusers 
stand forward ! I am in my sober senses when I call 
for them. Let them come forward, and I will plunge 
them into that nothingness from which they ought 
never to have emerged !" 

The president would have interrupted him, and rang 
his bell. Danton drowned the sound of it with his 

* St. Just had drawn up the accusations specified against Danton. 



240 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

terrible voice. " Do you not hear me f asked the 
president. 

" The voice," replied Danton — " the voice of a man 
who is defending his honor and his life, must over- 
power the sound of thy bell !" 

Danton still insisted that he should be confronted 
with several members of the Convention and the two 
committees. 

The second day passed off without any result ; 
Danton, and the others accused, still reiterating their 
demand, and ridiculing the tribunal. In this dilemma, 
St. Just got a decree passed in the Convention, 
authorizing the judges to deny the privilege of plead- 
ing to such of the accused as should show any dis- 
respect to them. On the third day, Fouquier-Tinville 
read the decree. Danton indignantly rose. " I call 
this audience to witness," said he, " that we have not 
insulted the tribunal." 

" That is true," cried several voices in the hall. The 
emotion was general. The tribunal was intimidated. 

" The truth," added Danton, " will one day be 
known. — I see great calamities ready to burst upon 
France.— The dictatorship exhibits itself without veil 
or disguise !" Perceiving at the farther end of the 
hall, Amar and Vouland, two deputies who were his 
enemies, he shook his fist at them. " Look," said he, 
"at those cowardly assassins; they follow us; they 
will not leave us so long as we are alive !" Amar and 
Vouland sneaked off in affright. The tribunal put an 
end to the sitting. 

The next day they were condemned, and executed. 
[April 5th.] The infamous rabble, paid to insult the 
victims, followed the carts. Desmoulins, filled with 
indignation, addressed the multitude, and poured forth 
a torrent of imprecations against the cowardly and 
hypocritical Robespierre. Danton, casting a calm and 
contemptuous look on the mob, said, "Be quiet, 
Camille ; take no notice of this vile rabble." 

On reaching the foot of the scaffold, Danton was 
going to embrace Herault-Sechelles, who extended 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 241 

his arms towards him, but was prevented by the exe- 
cutioner. " What," said he, " canst thou be more cruel 
than death? At least, thou canst not prevent our 
heads from embracing presently at the bottom of the 
basket." * 

Such was the end of Danton, who had been so effi- 
cient in the crisis of the Revolution, and so serviceable 
to it. The policy of Robespierre demanded victims ; 
his envy selected them ; and in Danton he sacrificed 
the most celebrated and the most dreaded man of the 
day. Danton, like Mirabeau, died proud of himself, 
considering his faults and his life sufficiently covered 
by his great services and his last projects. They 
perished together, Danton and Camille Desmoulins, 
those active agents of the Revolution — the latter, who 
may be said to have commenced it on the 12th of July, 
1789, the former, who may be said to have accom- 
plished it on the 10th of August, 1792. Truly, the 
revolution is devouring its own children ! 

Robespierre now reigned alone. His power was 
terrible, irresistible. It was Death, which he and his 
faction wielded against every feeling of humanity, 
against every principle of justice. In their iron hands 
order resumed its sway from the influence of terror ; 
obedience became universal from the extinction of 
hope. Silent and unresisted they led their victims to 
the scaffold, dreaded alike by the soldiers, who 
crouched, the people, who trembled, and the victims, 
who suffered.! 

It is now that we see the Reign of Terror ap- 
proaching the darkest depths of its night ! Among the 
next victims, the wife of Hebert, the beautiful wife of 
Desmoulins,! and all the relics of noble families were 
successively sacrificed. The Revolutionary Tribunal 

* Thiers. t Alison. 

$ " The widow of Camille Desmoulins, young, amiable, and well- 
informed, during the mock process which condemned her to death, 
as an accompHce of her husband, loathing Hfe, and anxious to fol- 
low him, displayed a firmness of mind that was seen with admira- 
tion, even by her judges. When she heard the sentence pronounced, 
she exclaimed, ' I shall then, in a few hours, again meet my bus- 

22 



242 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

was unceasingly in session ; the tumbrils rolled daily 
from tiie Conciergerie, and the multitude crowded 
daily to the Place de la Revolution to witness the 
operations of the guillotine and see the heads drop 
into the basket. The Duke de Chatelet, the marshals 
of Noailles and Mailly, men of eighty years, too aged 
to emigrate; the Dukes of Bethune and Villeroy ; 
many of the members of the old magistracy ; Males- 
herbes, the defender of Louis, all his family, his child- 
ren and grandchildren, perished together. Men were 
wanting, and the rage of the Terrorists vented itself 
upon women, who perished at this epoch in greater 
numbers than the other sex. Madame Dubarri, for- 
merly mistress of Louis XV., the Duchess de Gram- 
mont, and others, were guillotined. One day saw a 
troop of girls going to the scaffold for having made an 
offensive cockade, or carolled an imprudent air ; the 
next, an estabhshment of nuns, or a crowd of poor 
peasant women from La Vendee, such as Riouffe 
describes, tied and heaped in carts, like calves, and 
Ignorant of their guilt and their fate, stupified with 
fear, as they went to slaughter. The Princess Eliza- 
beth, sister of Louis XVI,, made at this time one of a 
devoted batch, and perished almost unnoticed. * 

Death was already descending from the upper to the 
lower classes of society. We find at this period on the 

band !'— and then, turning to her judges, she added, ' In departing 
from this world, in which nothing now remains to engage my affec- 
tions, I am far less the object of pity than you are.' — Previous to 
going to the scaffold she dressed herself with uncommon attention 
and taste. Her head-dress was peculiarly elegant ; a white gauze 
handkerchief, partly covering her beautiful black hair, added to the 
clearness and brilliancy of her complexion. Being come to the foot 
of the scaffold, she ascended the steps with resignation and even un- 
affected pleasure. She received the fatal blow without appearing to 
have regarded what the executioner was doing."— Du Broca. 

* " The Princess Elizabeth appeared before her judges with a 
placid countenance, and listened to the sentence of death with una- 
bated firmness. As she passed to the place of execution, her hand- 
kerchief fell from her neck, and exposed her in this situation to the 
eyes of the multitude. ' In the name of modesty I entreat you to 
cover my bosom,' she exclaimed to the executioner."— I)a Broca. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 243 

list of the Revolutionary Tribunal, tailors, shoemakers, 
hair-dressers, butchers, farmers, publicans, nay, even 
laboring men, condemned for sentiments and language 
held to be counter-revolutionary.* For example, we 
enumerate a few from the General List of the Con- 
demned. 

Jean Julien, wagoner, having been sentenced to 
twelve years' hard labor, took it into his head to cry 
'^ Vive le Roi !" He was brought back before the tri- 
bunal and condemned to death, September, 1792. 

Jean Baptiste Hem-y, aged eighteen, journeyman 
tailor, convicted of having sawed a tree of liberty ; 
executed the 6th of September, 1793. 

Bernard Augustin D'Absac, aged fifty-one, ex-noble, 
late captain in the 11th regiment, and formerly in the 
sea-service, convicted of having betrayed several 
towns and several ships into the hands of the enemy, 
condemned to death on the 10th of January, 1794, and 
executed the same day. 

Stephen Thomas Ogie Baulny, aged forty-six, ex- 
noble, convicted of having entrusted his son, aged 
fourteen, to a life-guard, in order that he might emi- 
grate. Condemned to death, 31st of January, 1794, 
and executed the same day. 

Henriette Frangoise de Marhceuf, aged fifty-five, 
widow of the ci-devant Marquis de Marboeuf, residing 
at No. 47 rue St. Honore, in Paris, convicted of having 
hoped for the arrival of the Austrians and Prussians, 
and of keeping provisions for them. Condemned 5th 
of February, 1794 ; executed same day. 

Jacques de Baume, a Dutch merchant, convicted of 
being the author and accomplice of a plot which 
existed in the month of June, 1790. Executed 14th of 
February, 1794. 

Jacques Duchesne, aged sixty, formerly a servant, 
since a broker ; Jean Sauvage, aged thirty-four, gun- 
smith ; Frangoise Loizelier, aged forty-seven, milliner ; 
Melanie Cunosse, aged twenty-one, milliner; Marie 

* Thiers. 



244 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

Magdalene Virolle, aged twenty-five, female hair- 
dresser ;— convicted of having, in the city of Paris, 
where they resided, composed writings, stuck up bills, 
and pousse de cris — all condemned to death 5th of 
May, 1794 ; executed same day. 

Genevieve Gouvon, aged seventy-seven, seamstress, 
convicted of having been the author and accomplice 
of various conspiracies formed since the beginning of 
the Revolution by the enemies of the people and of 
liberty, tending to create civil war, to paralyze the 
public, and to annihilate the existing government. 
Condemned May 11th, 1793 ; executed same day. 

Frangois Bertrand, aged thirty-seven, tinman and 
publican at Leure, convicted of having furnished to 
the defenders of the country sour wine injurious to the 
health of the citizens; condemned at Paris, May 15th, 
1793 ; executed same day. 

Marie Angelique Plaisant, convicted of having ex- 
claimed that she was an Aristocrat, and " A fig for the 
nation !" Condemned 19th of July, 1794 ; executed 
the same day. 

Such were the crimes for which p'ersons were 
arrested, convicted and executed; and no wonder the 
prisons were filled, and the death-carts daily rumbling 
through the streets of Paris and the other cities of 
France. In fact, the inhabitants of Paris, through 
which these daily processions passed, became at length 
disgusted, and dared to show it by shutting up their 
shops. The guillotine was, in consequence, removed 
to the opposite extremity of Paris, not however, relax- 
ing its activity. During the four months, says Mignet, 
which succeeded the fall of Danton's party, the com- 
mittees exercised their power without opposition and 
without restraint. Death became the sole means of 
government, and the republic was a system of daily 
executions. — Robespierre was now considered by the 
Jacobins as the greatest man of his age. He became 
the general object of the flattery of his party ; no- 
thing was spoken of but his virtue, his genius, his 
eloquence. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 245 

From the farthest extremities of France, crowds of 
prisoners daily arrived at the gates of the Concier- 
gerie, which successively sent forth its bands of vic- 
tims to the scaffold. Gray hairs and youthful forms ; 
countenances blooming with health, and faces worji 
with suffering; beauty and talent, rank and virtue, 
were indiscriminately rolled to the fatal doors. Sixty 
persons often arrived in a day. Night and day the 
carts incessantly discharged victims into the prison ; 
weeping mothers and trembling orphans were thrust 
in with the brave and the powerful. Sixty or eighty 
persons were daily sent forth to execution. An aque- 
duct was dug to carry off the blood and gore from 
the guillotine, and four men were daily employed in 
emptying the blood of the victims into a reservoir. 

At three o'clock each afternoon, the tumbrils, with 
their victims, set out from the Conciergerie, slowly 
passing through the vaulted passages of the prison, 
amidst crowds of captives, gazing on the aspect of 
those about to undergo a fate which might so soon 
become their own. The higher orders, in general, 
behaved with firmness and serenity ; silently they 
rode to death, with their eyes turned upward in 
prayer. Numbers of the lower class piteously be- 
wailed their fate, calling upon heaven and earth to 
witness their innocence. Women, overcome with 
fright and horror, died on the way, and their lifeless 
remains were guillotined ; one kept her infant to her 
bosom till she reached the foot of the scaffold, where 
the executioner tore the innocent babe from her breast 
as she suckled it for the last time, and the screams of 
maternal agony were only stifled with her life ; one 
woman, as she was being removed, declared herself 
upon the point of child-birth, but was compelled to 
move on, in doing which she fell upon the ground of 
the court-yard, and was delivered of an infant in the 
presence of the jailers.* 

Such accumulated horrors annihilated all the chari- 

* Alison ; Riouffe. 
22* 



246 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

ties and intercourse of life. Before daybreak the shops 
of the provision sellers were besieged by crowds of 
women and children, clamoring for the food which the 
law of the maximum, in general, prevented them from 
obtaining. The farmers trembled to bring their pro- 
duce to market, the shopkeeper to expose them to 
sale. The richest quarters of the town were deserted; 
no equipages or crowds of passengers were to be 
seen on the streets ; the sinister words " National Pro- 
perty," imprinted in large characters on the walls, 
everywhere showed how far the work of confiscation 
had proceeded. Passengers hesitated to address their 
most intimate friends when they met ; the extent of 
calamity had rendered men suspicious even of those 
they loved best. Every one assumed the coarsest 
dress and most squalid appearance; an elegant ex- 
terior would have been the certain forerunner of des- 
truction. At one hour only were any symptoms of 
animation seen ; it was when the victims were con- 
veyed to execution — the humane flying in horror from 
the sight — the Jacobins rushing in crowds to satiate 
their eyes with human agony.* Night came, but with 
it no diminution of the anxiety of the people. Every 
family assembled its members ; with trembling looks 
they gazed round the room, fearful that the very walls 
might harbor spies and informers. The sound of a 
foot, the stroke of a hammer, a voice in the streets, 
froze all hearts with terror. If a knock was heard at 
the door, every one, in agonized suspense, expected 
his fate. 

Unable to endure such protracted misery, numbers 
committed suicide, and " had the reign of Robespierre 
continued much longer," says Freron, "multitudes 
would have thrown themselves under the guillotine, 
for the first of social affections, the love of life, was 
already extinguished in almost every heart." 

Robespierre at this period conceived the idea of 
reversing the profanities of the Worship of Reason, by 

♦Alison; Lacretelle; Thiers; Riouffe. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 247 

professing a public belief in the existence of a Supreme 
Being; and made speeches to counteract the notion 
that, in proclaiming the acknowledgment of a Deity, 
he was labouring for the benefit of the priests. " What 
is there in common between the priests and God ]" he 
exclaimed. " The priests are to morahty what quacks 
are to medicine ! How different is the God of Nature 
from the God of the priests ! I know nothing that so 
nearly resembles atheism as the rehgions which they 
have framed. By grossly misrepresenting the Deity, 
they have annihilated belief in him as far as lay in 
their power. They have created him after their own 
image; they have made him jealous, capricious, 
greedy, cruel, and implacable ; they have treated him 
as the mayors of the palace formerly treated the de- 
scendants of Clovis, in order to reign in his name and 
put themselves in his place ; they have confined him 
in heaven as in a palace, and have called him on earth 
only to demand of him their own interest, tithes, wealth, 
honors, pleasures and power. The real temple of the 
Supreme Being is the universe ; his worship, virtue ; 
his festivals, the joy of a great nation, assembled in his 
presence to knit closer the bonds of universal frater- 
nity, and to pay him the homage of intelligent and 
pure hearts." 

He succeeded in getting a decree passed, to the 
effect that the French nation recognized the existence 
of a Supreme Being, and that a great festival should 
take place on the 8th of June following. 

He was at this time, too, exalted higher than ever 
in the opinions of the Jacobins by an attempt (as it was 
construed) to assassinate him. 

A young girl, by the name of Cecile Regnault, 
whose father lived in Paris and carried on the busi- 
ness of a paper-maker, called at Robespierre's resi- 
dence (or rather at the house of the cabinet-maker, 
Duplaix, in whose family he was domesticated,* in 

* " Duplaix had a wife and three daughters, who were all flattered 
by the presence of the great popular leader. Domiciled in this 



248 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

the Rue St Honore, on the 23d of May, and asked to 
see him, urgently insisting to be admitted. From the 
strange air of this young female, suspicions were con- 
ceived; she was seized and delivered over to the 
police. She had a bundle under her arm, which 
was found to contain some clothes and two knives. 
It was instantly surmised that, emulous of Charlotte 
Corday, she intended to murder Robespierre. Taken 
before the Committee of Public Safety, she was ques- 
tioned as to her business with Robespierre. Her 
reply was that she wanted to see how a tyrant looked. 
She was then asked for what purpose the clothes and 
knifes were. She answered that she had not intended 
to make any particular use of the knives ; that, as for 
the clothes, she had provided herself with them be- 
cause she expected to be carried to prison, and from 
prison to the guillotine. She added that she was a 
royalist, because she would rather have one king 
than fifty thousand. She was urged to answer further 
questions, but refused, and desired to be conducted to 
the scaffold. She was condemned by the Revolution- 
ary Tribunal, and her whole family with her, together 
with many others. Not less than fifty-four were exe- 
cuted with her, as accomplices, each covered with a 
red shirt. A strong guard accompanied the carts, 
and there was much parade made to gratify the 
vanity of Robespierre; rumors of plots and con- 
spiracies against his life were industriously circulated, 
and congratulations poured into him from the Jaco- 
bins ; in the Convention it was proposed to grant him 

family, Robespierre sought no other society, and gave all his private 
hours to this humble circle. Duplaix himself received his reward in 
being appointed one of the jurors of the Revolutionary Tribunal, a 
place of power and emolument. Madame Duplaix became con- 
spicuous as one of those women who were in the habit of daily sit- 
ting with their needle-work around the scaffold of the guillotine. 
The eldest daughter, EUnore, aspired to captivate Robespierre ; she 
endeavoured to become his wife, and ended in passing, in the opinion 
of her neiglibours, as his mistress. She and her sisters, and other 
companions, used to sit at the windows to see the loads of victims 
who passed every day to the scaffold." — Quarterly Review^ 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 249 

a life-guard for the protection of a person so invalu- 
able to the nation ! Cecile Regnault behaved on the 
scaffold with the firmness of Charlotte Corday. She 
embraced her relations, exhorting them to die with 
constancy. * 

A similar attempt was made upon the life of Collot 
d'Herbois, by a man by the name of Ladmiral ; a short 
stout man, fifty years of age, who lodged in the same 
house with d'Herbois, in the Rue Favart. It appears 
that he had formed the design to assassinate one of 
the leading tyrants of the day, and his mind had some- 
times wavered between Robespierre, and d'Herbois. 
He had finally made up his mind to despatch the latter, 
and on the 22nd of May, waited the whole day in the 
gallery adjoining the Committee room. Intending to 
shoot him there. Not meeting with a chance to put 
his design in execution, he returned home and posted 
himself on the stair-case. About midnight Collot 
came in and passed up towards his apartment. 
" Sceleret !" exclaimed Ladmiral, pointing his pistol, 
but it merely snapped. He pointed it again, but it 
again missed fire. A third time he was more succes- 
ful, but the bullet escaped d'Herbois and hit the wall. 
By the flash, Collot recognized his fellow-lodger. A 
desperate scuflje ensued, and Collot cried murder. A 
passing patrole hurried into the house. Ladmiral ran 
up stairs to his own room, where he fastened himself 
in. He was followed by the patrole, who threatened 
to break open the door. Ladmiral declared he was 
armed, and that he would fire upon any one who 
dared to approach near him. A crowd collected, and 
the door was forced. Ladmiral fired a musket and 
killed a locksmith who was the first to advance. 
He was secured and conducted to prison. Upon his 
trial he was asked who had instigated him to commit 
this crime. He replied that it was not a crime, but a 
service which he had meant to render his country ; 
that he alone had conceived the design, and his only 

* Thiers ; Mignet ; Lacretelle ; Du Broca. 



250 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

regret was that he had not succeeded. He was 
executed. 

The spirit that prompted these two attempts was 
gradually manifesting itself, notwithstanding the pop- 
ularity of Robespierre and his colleagues with the 
Jacobins. The loss of friends by the guillotine filled 
many with this feehng of mingled despair and desire 
of revenge, and in desperation, they were willing to 
meet death if the opportunity presented itself to effect 
that of the tyrants. 

The 8th of June was the day of the festival in honor 
of the Supreme Being. The getting up of this affair 
had been confided to David, the painter.* Vast pre- 
parations had been made; the festival was to be 
magnificent. On the morning of the 8th, the sun 
shone forth in all his brightness. Robespierre ap- 
peared in the Convention, in a sky-blue coat, white 
silk vest embroidered with silver, black silk breeches, 
white silk stockings, and shoe buckles of gold. His hair 
was frizzled, powdered, and adorned with a bunch of 
feathers ; in his hand he held, as did all the represen- 
tatives, a bouquet of flowers and wheat-ears. In his 
countenance, usually so gloomy, beamed a cheerful- 
ness that was uncommon to him. He marched at the 
head of the Convention, fifteen feet in advance, sur- 
rounded with a volunteer body guard, " fierce patriots 
with feruled sticks." 

* " James Louis David, a celebrated French painter, born in Paris, 
1750. Before the Revolution he had acquired fame as an artist. 
Upon the trial of the King, he voted for his death, and became one of 
the wildest idolaters of Robespierre and Marat. Nor did his Jacobin- 
ical feelings cool for some years after the fall of these men. He was 
unquestionably one of the first of French painters, and this conside- 
ration had some weight in obtaining his pardon in 1794, when he 
was accused of being a Terrorist. In 1800, however, Bonaparte ap- 
pointed him painter to the government, and David seems to have 
thenceforth manifested no repugnance in seeing supreme power in 
the hands of a single individual. On the restoration of the Bourbons, 
he was banished from France in 1816, and died at Brussels in De- 
cember 1825. In personal appearance, it is said he was hideously 
ugly." — BiogTophie Moderne. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 251 

In the centre of the garden of the Tuilleries an am- 
phitheatre had been erected, opposite to which were 
statues representing Atheism, Discord and Selfishness, 
destined to be burned by the hands of Robespierre. 
The amphitheatre was to be occupied by the Conven- 
tion ; and on the right and left were several groups of 
boys, men, aged persons, and females. The boys 
wore wreaths of violets, the youths of myrtle, the men 
of oak, the people of ivy and olive. The women held 
their daughters by the hand, and carried baskets of 
flowers. As soon as the Convention had taken its 
place, the ceremony was opened with music. " Re- 
publican Frenchmen," said Robespierre, " the ever 
fortunate day which the French people dedicated to 
the Supreme Being has at length arrived. Never did 
the world, which he created, exhibit a spectacle so 
worthy of his attention. He has beheld tyranny, 
crime, and imposture reigning upon earth. He be- 
holds at this moment a whole nation assailed by all 
the oppressors of mankind, suspending the course of 
its heroic labors, to lift its thoughts and its prayers 
towards the Supreme Being, who gave it the mission 
to undertake and the courage to execute them !" 

He then descended from the amphitheatre, and with 
a torch set fire to the figures, Atheism, Discord and 
Selfishness. From amidst their ashes arose the statue 
of Wisdom ; but it did not escape notice that it was 
blackened by the flames from which it issued. Robes- 
pierre returned to his place, and delivered a second 
speech. After which the Convention set out in pro- 
cession for the Champs-de-Mars. The pride of Robes- 
pierre seemed redoubled ; he walked still in advance, 
and some keen sarcasms were flung at him from the 
crowd. He was called the new Pontiff, and laughed 
at ; the word " tyrant" was occasionally heard, and 
exclamations that there were " still Brutuses for a 
Caesar," 

The day concluded with fireworks and public diver- 
sions; it was a day on which Robespierre had at- 
tained the summit of his honors, but he had attained 



252 THE REIGN OF TERROR, 

the summit only to be hurled from it. Everybody 
had been hurt by his pride. The sarcasms had 
reached his ear, and he had observed in some of his 
colleagues a boldness that was unusual. Billaud-Va- 
rennes and Collot d'Herbois appeared extremely cold 
in their manner towards him.* Barrere, Tallien, 
Bourdon, Fouche, Lecointre, Freron and Barras, se- 
cretly hated him, but feared his power,and were of the 
same sentiments in regard to the danger they stood 
in. After this, violent debates took place in the Con- 
vention, and, as suspicions and jealousy began to be 
entertained of Robespierre, he was thwarted at every 
turn in the decrees which he desired to pass. In the 
Committee, too, his wishes encountered the same oppo- 
sition. He, indignant at this resistance, resolved to 
secede from the committe, and take no further part in 
its deliberations, f He did so, and his absence gave 
the members of the committee more occasion to differ 
among themselves, and those who were the enemies 
of Robespierre more opportunity to cabal against 
him. He took refuge in the Jacobin club, where his 
parasites and partizans thronged around him. At the 
club he spoke against such members of the Conven- 
tion as were hostile to him ; and they, desperate be- 
cause they knew he spared no man in his vengeanfce, 
prepared on the first signal of attack to oppose him 
with vigor. 

It was now a month that Robespierre had absented 
himself from the committee. He gathered around him 
all his power at the Jacobin club. Billaud-Varennes, 
d'Herbois, and Barrere, took the direction of the 
national affairs into their own hands. They con- 
cealed all their operations, as much as possible from 

* "Robespierre conceived the idea of celebrating a festival in 
honor of the Suprerne Being, flattering himself doubtless, with being 
able to rest his political ascendancy on a religion arranged according 
to his own notions. But, in the procession of this impious festival, 
he bethought himself of walking first, in order to mark his pre-emi- 
nence, and from that moment he was lost." — Madame de Stacl. 

t Thiera 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 253* 

Couthon, who, not having withdrawn like Robespierre, 
watched them attentively and annoyed them much. 

At the Jacobin meetings, Robespierre continued to 
harangue, and to get his old friends of the Mountain 
expelled from the club ; Billaud, d'Herbois, Fouche, 
and others, one after another, were thus excluded 
from membership, and consequently became openly 
hostile to him. Thus the storm roared daily more 
and more, and the horizon on all sides grew overcast 
with clouds. Both sides complained of each other 
with great acrimony. Robespierre in dread of assassi- 
nation, never went out doors without being accom- 
panied by his body guard of Jacobins, armed with 
bludgeons. In the meanwhile his particular friend, 
St. Just, who had been absent on a mission to the 
army, arrived in Paris. * He was apprized by Robes- 
pierre of the state of affairs. His maxim was to 
strike quickly and forcibly. "Z>are.'" said he — 
" that's the secret of revolutions .'" The Jacobins were 
accordingly worked up to a proper pitch ; Fleuriot, 
the mayor, Henriot, the commandant of the armed 
force, Cofinhal, the judge, and Payen, the procureur, 
were all in the interest of Robespierre, ready to do 
his bidding, and an insurrection was resolved upon. 

For some time past Robespierre had been preparing 
a voluminous speech ; on the 26th of July he repaired 
to the Convention to deliver it. It was a long and 
laboured declamation in defence of himself, and accu- 
satory of those who had opposed him. In silence he 

* " St. Just was austere in his manners, like Robespierre, but more 
enthusiastic. He exhibited the true features of gloomy fanaticism ; 
a regular visage, dark and lank hair, a penetrating and severe look, 
a melancholy expression of countenance ; simple and unostentatious 
in his habits, austere in private life, and indefatigable in public, he 
was the most resolute, because the most sincere, orall his colleagues. 
He was one of those, who, filled with visionary aspirations, think 
that good is always to be worked out of evil, and are ready to sacri- 
fice themselves and the whole world to any scheme they have set 
their minds upon. Steeled against every sentiment of pity, he de- 
manded the execution of victims in the same manner as the supply 
of armies." — Alison; Hazlitt. 

23 



254 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

began it, in silence he concluded it. He found he had 
no longer a party in the Convention. He was sur- 
prised, vexed, and dejected. He hurried away to his 
trusty Jacobins, to meet his friends and borrow cour- 
age from them. No sooner did he appear among 
them than he was greeted with applause. He was 
requested to read the speech he had just delivered at 
the Convention. He complied, and took up two hours 
in repeating it, interrupted every moment by frenzied 
shouts and plaudits. " This speech which you have 
just heard," said he, " is my last will and testament. 
The league of the wicked is so strong that I cannot 
hope to escape. I fkll without regret ; I leave you my 
memory; it will be dear to you, and you will defend 
it." His friends cried out for him not to despair, that 
they would yet defend him. Henriot, Cofinhal, Dumas, 
and Payen, surrounded him and declared they were 
quite ready to act. " Then separate the wicked from 
the weak," said Robespierre ; " deliver the Convention 
from the villains who oppress it ; render it the service 
which it expects of you, as on the 31st of May and 
on the 2nd of June. March, and once more save lib- 
erty! If, in spite of all these efforts, we must fall, 
why then, my friends, you shall see me drink hemlock 
with composure." 

"And I," exclaimed David, the artist, catching 
Robespierre by the hand, in rapture at his eloquence, 
" will drink the cup with thee." 

Payen, the national agent, proposed a bold plan. He 
said that all the conspirators (that is, the opponents of 
Robespierre) were at that moment assembled, and that 
they ought to go and secure them. Robespierre ob- 
jected to this scheme ; St. Just, he said, was to make 
a report next morning in the Convention ; he, Robes- 
pierre, would again speak, and, if they should then be 
unsuccessful in carrying their point of expelling the 
obnoxious deputies — the magistrates of the people, 
assembling in the meanwhile at the Hotel-de-Ville, and 
supported by the armed force of the sections under 
Henriot, must declare that the people had resumed their 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 255 

authority, and proceed to deliver the Convention from 
the villains who were misleading it. Such was his plan. 
It was agreed to. The meeting broke up. 

During that night there was agitation in all quarters. 
What had passed at the Jacobin club, was speedily 
made known to the committees ; the members of the 
Convention ran to each other's houses, and, knit to- 
gether by the common danger which threatened them, 
agreed to attack Robespierre in a more formal manner 
on the following day, and to obtain a decree of accusa- 
tion against him if possible. Tallien agreed to make 
the first attack, and only desired that the others would 
have the courage to follow him.* 

It was the 27th of July. Early in the morning, the 
deputies hastend to the Convention. Fleuriot, the 
mayor, and Payen, the national agent, were at the 
Hotel-de-Ville. Henriot was on horseback, with his 
aides-de-camp, riding through the streets of Paris. The 
Jacobins, at their club, had commenced a permanent 
sitting. At the Convention, the deputies were tumultu- 
ously pacing the passages and corridors, talking 
earnestly together, encouraging each other, and ad- 
dressing those who had not yet declared their senti- 
ments with vehemence to decide with them in their 
opposition to Robespierre. It was half past seven 
o'clock. Tallien was speaking to his colleagues at one 
of the doors of the hall, when he saw St. Just enter 
and ascend the tribune. " This is the moment," said 
Tallien ; " let us go in." They followed him ; the 
benches filled. St. .Tust was in the tribune. The two 
Robespierres, Lebas, and Couthon, were seated beside 
one another.! Collot-d'Herbois occupied the chair. 
St. Just set out with asserting that he was of no fac- 
tion ; that he belonged only to truth ; that the tribune 

* Thiers. 

t " When St. Just mounted the tribune, Robespierre took his sta- 
tion on the bench directly opposite, to intimidate his adversaries by 
his look. His knees trembled ; the color fled from his lips as he as- 
cended to his seat ; the hostile appearance of the Assembly already 
gave him an anticipation of his fate." — Alison. 



256 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

might perhaps prove the Tarpeian rock to him, but 
that he should nevertheless give his opinion without 
reserve concerning the dissensions which had broken 
out. " I am about " said he " to lift the veil — " 

" I tear it asunder," exclaimed Tallien, interrupting 
him. " The public interest is sacrificed by individuals, 
who come hither to speak exclusively in their own 
name, and conduct themselves as superior to the whole 
Convention." Billaud-Varennes spoke. He said that 
the Jacobins had the preceding evening held a sedi- 
tious meeting, which was attended by hired murder- 
ers, who avowed a design of slaughtering the Conven- 
tion. He maintained that St. Just had no right to 
speak in the name of the committees, because he had 
not communicated his report to them ; that this was 
the moment for the Assembly to be firm, for it must 
perish if it showed any weakness. 

" No ! no !" cried the deputies, weaving their hats ; 
" it will not be weak ; it shall not perish !" 

Billaud continued, and said that Robespierre had 
always sought to control the committees; that he 
always had done just what he pleased, and designed 
to make himself absolute master. He went on to enu- 
merate many acts of Robespierre, and, v/hile he was 
detailing these, bursts of indignation escaped from the 
members, and Robespierre, livid with rage, rushed 
from his seat and ascended the steps of the tribune. 
Posted behind Billaud, he demanded of the president, 
with extreme violence, permission to speak. He seized 
the moment when Billaud had finished, to renew his 
demand with still greater vehemence. " Down with 
the tyrant ! down with the tyrant !" was shouted from 
all parts of the hall. This accusing cry proclaimed 
that the Convention dared at length to give him the 
name which he deserved. 

While he was persisting, Tallien, who had darted to 
the tribune, claimed permission to speak again, and 
obtained it. " Just now," said he, " I desired that the 
veil might be thrown off; I perceive that it is. The 
conspirators are unmasked. I knew that my life was 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 257 

threatened, and hitherto have kept silence ; but yes- 
terday I attended the sitting of the Jacobins, I saw the 
army of the new Cromwell formed, I trembled for my 
country, and I armed myself with a dagger, resolved 
to plunge it into his bosom, if the Convention had not 
the courage this day day to pass a decree of accusa- 
tion !" 

As he finished these words, Tallien exhibited his 
dagger, and was greeted with loud applause Robes- 
piel*re reiterated his demand to be heard ; turning first 
to the president, then to the Convention, but his voice 
was drowned in clamourous cries of " Down ! down 
with the tyrant !" Deputy after deputy rose, and de- 
nounced him. Henriot and Dumas were decreed con- 
spirators, and a vote was carried for their immediate ap- 
prehension. Robespierre, choked with rage and foam- 
ing at the mouth, interrupted Tallien with furious cries, 
passing from his place to the tribune, to and fro, like a 
chafed lion in his cage, " Arrest ! accusation !" shout- 
ed a great number of the deputies. " Yes ! yes !" re- 
plied a hundred voices. The younger Robespierre 
cried out, " I share the crimes of my brother ; let me 
share his fate." His voice was scarcely noticed. " The 
arrest! the arrest!" was still shouted. Robespierre 
continued his demand to be heard, but the president 
answered him only by ringing the bell ; and, turning 
towards the Mountain, he saw only cool friends or fu- 
rious enemies. He next turned towards the Plain. 
" To you," said he, — " pure men, virtuous men, I 
address myself, and not to ruffians." They turned 
away their faces, or used threatening gestures at him. 
Once more he addressed the president. " For the last 
time, president of assassins, I ask to be heard." He 
uttered the concluding words in a faint and stifled 
voice. " The blood of Danton chokes thee !" cried a 
voice.* 

* " while the vaults of the hall echoed with exclamations from 
those who had hitherto been his accomplices — the former flatterers 
and followers of this dethroned demagogue — he himself, breathless, 
foaming, exhausted, tried in vain to raise those screeching notea 

23* 



258 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

The arrest, so generally called for, was put to the 
vote, and decreed amidst tremendous uproar. The 
members shouted, waving their hats, " Liberty for- 
ever ! The Republic forever ! The tyrants are no 
more !" 

In the arrest of Robespierre was included that of his 
brother, Augustin Robespierre, Couthon, St. Just, and 
Lebas. The accused still remained in their seats. 
" To the bar ! to the bar !" was the cry, and the five 
of them went down; Robespierre furious, St. Just 
calm and contemptuous, the others thunderstruck at 
this humiliation so new to them. They were sent off 
to the committee of Public Safety, and the Assembly 
broke up at five o'clock.* 

During this stormy contest, the partizans of Robes- 
pierre had continued collecting at the hall of the Jaco- 
bins and at the Hotel-de-Ville. They expected that he 
would be victorious in the Convention, and that the 
armed force would only be called on to support its 
decrees. At half-past four, intelligence circulated 
through Paris of the arrest of Robespierre and his 
accomplices. Henriot immediately mounted his horse, 
and with drawn sabre, at the head of his staff, traversed 
the streets, exclaiming " To arms to save the country !" 
He was intoxicated at the time ; he rocked upon his 
horse and flourished his sabre like a maniac. He first 
galloped to the fauxbourg St. Antoine, to rouse the 
working-people of that quarter ; they scarcely com- 

by which the Convention had heretofore been terrified and put to 
silence. We have been told that Robespierre's last audible vs^ords, 
contending against the exclamations of hundreds and the bell which 
the president was incessantly ringing, and uttered in the highest 
tones which despair could give to a voice naturally shrill and discor- 
dant, dwelt long on the memory, and haunted the dreams, of many 
who heard him."— Scott. " Dispirited by so many repulses, Robes- 
pierre returned to his seat, and sunk back, exhausted with passion 
and fatigue- His mouth foamed ; his voice grew thick. He was ar- 
rested amidst shouts of joy, and, as he went out, said, in the hollow 
accents of despair, ' The republic is lost, the brigrands triumph!"* 
Mignet. 
* Theirs; Mignet; Lacretelle. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. . 259 

prehended what he meant, and had besides begun to 
pity the victims whom they daily saw passing to the 
scaffold. Too much blood had sickened their hearts, 
and they had also awoke to the conviction that their 
domestic condition was none the better from the spil- 
ling of it. On his course through the fauxbourg, he met 
the carts with their daily victims. The arrest of 
Robespierre being known, these carts were sur- 
rounded, and an effort was made to turn them back. 
Henriot interposed, and by his brute power caused 
this last batch of unfortunates to be guillotined. There 
were eighty of them. He then returned, still at full 
gallop, and at the Luxembourg ordered the gend- 
armerie to assemble. Taking with him a detachment 
of these, he dashed along the quays, intending to 
proceed to the Place du Carrousel, and to deliver 
his arrested friends, who were before the Committee 
of Public Safety. As he galloped along the quays, he 
threw down several persons. A man, who had his 
wife on his arm, called out to the gendarmes, "Ar- 
rest that ruffian ; he is no longer your general !" An 
aide-de-camp replied by a cut with his sword. Hen- 
riot proceeded, dashing through the Rue St. Honore, 
and, on reaching the Palais-Royal, perceiving Merlin 
of Thionville (one of the deputies,) he made up to 
him, shouting "Arrest that scoundrel! he is one of 
those who persecute the faithful representatives." 
Merlin was seized, maltreated, and taken to the 
nearest guard-house. Henriot, brandishing his sabre, 
swaying upon his horse, and calling upon the people 
to rise in arms, continued his rapid course, and arri- 
ving at the courts of the National Palace, (the Tuil- 
leries) made his companions alight, and endeav^oured 
to penetrate into the building. The grenadiers refused 
him admittance, and crossed their bayonets. At this 
moment a messenger advanced and said, "Gend- 
armes, arrest that rebel ; a decree of the Convention 
orders you to do so." Henriot was immediately sur- 
rounded and disarmed, together with several of his 
aides-de-camp ; they were pinioned and conducted to 




(260) 



THE REIGN OF TERKOR. 261 

the hall of the Committee, and placed beside the Robes- 
pierres, Couthon, St. Just, and Lebas.* 

But the insurgents regained their advantage between 
six and seven o'clock, in consequence of the dispersion 
of the Assembly and the energetic measures of the 
municipality. Robespierre and his accomplices had 
been carried off to different prisons, while Henriot 
was detained before the Committee. The municipahty 
despatched orders to the different jailers not to detain 
Robespierre and his arrested friends, at the same time 
sending detachments to rescue them. Cofinhal, with 
two hundred cannoniers, hastened to the hall of the 
Committee, and rescued Henriot, who hurried to the 
National Palace, where he found his horses still wait- 
ing ; he leaped upon one of them, and, with great 
presence of mind, told the companies of the sections 
and the artillery men about him that the Committee 
had just declared him innocent and reinstated him in 
his command. The men rallied around him, and, fol- 
lowed by a considerable force, he began to give orders 
against the Convention, and to prepare for besieging 
the hall, in which the members had now tumultuously 
reassembled. 

" Representatives ! the moment is come for dying at 
our post," said CoUot-d'Herbois, taking his seat in the 
chair, which, from the arrangements of the hall, must 
have received the first balls. Henriot was still issuing 
orders outside. " Outlaw him ! outlaw the ruffian !" 
cried several of the deputies, which was instantly 
decreed, and some of the deputies went out and pro- 
claimed it to the gunners. 

" Fire !" exclaimed Henriot. 

" Gunners, will you disgrace yourselves," cried the 
deputies—" that ruffian is outlawed !" 

The deputies prevailed, and Henriot's command was 
disobeyed. His men abandoned him, and he had but 
barely time to turn his horse's head and seek refuge at 
the Hotel-de-Ville. 

* Thiers. 



262 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

The Convention next outlawed the deputies who 
had withdrawn themselves from its decrees, and all 
the members of the municipality who were engaged in 
the insurrection. They next appointed Barras, (one of 
their members,) commandant of the armed force, and 
*sent certain members of their own body throughout 
the sections to rouse the people in defence of the Con- 
vention. Barras ordered the generale to be beat, and 
formed his battalions together. Whilst this was doing, 
the tocsin was sounding at the Hotel-de-Ville. It sum- 
moned the citizens thither, whilst the generale called 
them to the Convention, and Paris was soon in the 
most violent state of agitation.* 

In the interim, Robespierre, and the other arrested 
deputies, had been rescued from prison, and had 
arrived at the Hotel-de-Ville. When he appeared, his 
faithful Jacobins embraced him, loaded him with de- 
monstrations of attachment, and swore to die in his 
defence. Messengers from both parties arrived at the 
different sections, calling upon the National Guard, 
which got under arms, but, distracted and uncertain, 
hesitated to obey the summons of the municipality, in 
consequence of the report of Robespierre's arrest. 
Meanwhile the news of this arrest shot a ray of hope 
through the minds of numerous proscribed individuals, 
who were in concealment in the city. With trembling 
steps they issued from their hiding-places, and, ap- 
proaching the columns of their fellow-citizens, be- 
sought them, with tears and pathetic language, to 
assist in dethroning the tyrant. The minds of many 
were already won by the persuasion of the deputies 
to the side of the Convention, those of all Were in a 
state of uncertainty, when, at ten o'clock, the feeling 
was such, the battalions marched towards the Conven- 
tion, and defiled through the hall in the midst of en- 
thusiastic applause. At midnight above three thousand 
men had arrived. " The moments are precious," said 
Freron ; " the time for action has come ; let us in- 

* Thiers ; Lacretelle ; Alison. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 263 

stantly march against the rebels; we will summon 
them, in the name of the Convention, to deliver up the 
traitors, and, if they refuse, we will lay the Hotel-de- 
Ville in ashes." — " Depart," said Tallien, " and let not 
the rising sun shine on one of the conspirators in 
life." 

The order was promptly obeyed; a few battalions 
and pieces of artillery were left to guard the Conven- 
tion, and the remainder of the forces, under command 
of Barras, marched at midnight against the insur- 
gents, who, at the Hotel-de-Ville, were anxiously 
awaiting expected reinforcements of the national 
guard. The night was dark ; a feeble moonlight only 
shone through the gloom ; but the forced illumination 
of the houses supplied a vivid hght, which shone on 
the troops, who, in profound silence and in serried 
masses, marched from the Tuilleries along the quays 
of the river towards the head-quarters of Robespierre 
and his supporters. 

The adherents of Robespierre consisted of the can- 
noniers and armed force commanded by Hen^iot, 
composed of Jacobins and the very lowest of the 
canaille. The Place-de-Greve, in front of the Hotel- 
de-Ville, was filled with them, and bristled with bayo- 
nets and pikes. But their courage was much shaken 
by the non-appearance of any support from the 
national guard ; the working men of St. Antoine and 
St. Marceau had not come; and when the light of 
torches discovered the national uniform appearing in 
opposition at all the avenues leading to the square, 
and ten pieces of artillery pointed against them, the 
cannoniers no longer felt the disposition to support 
Robespierre and the municipality, whilst the Jacobin 
rabble deserted to their homes and obscurity. Henriot, 
Robespierre, Couthon, St. Just, Lebas, and the con- 
spirators were inside the Hotel, sitting in council, filled 
with not a little dismay. Henriot, hearing the shout 
that was raised when the cannoniers wheeled into the 
ranks of the Convention, descended the stair of the 
Hotel to harangue the gunners, but, finding the square 



264 THE REIGN OP TERROR. 

deserted, he vented execrations, and stumbled back 
with this intelligence to the council. 

Despair overwhelmed the conspirators. They found 
themselves abandoned by their troops and surrounded 
on all sides by those of the Convention. Cofinhal, an 
energetic man, who had been ill-seconded, enraged 
against Henriot, said to him, " It is thy cowardice, 
villain, that has undone us." He then rushed upon 
him, seized him by the waist, and threw him out of a 
window. The drunken Henriot fell upon a heap of 
filth, which prevented his fall from being mortal ; he 
contrived to crawl, bruised and mutilated, into the 
entrance of a sewer, from whence he was dragged out 
by the troops of the Convention. Cofinhal, and the 
younger Robespierre, leaped from a window into the 
court-yard, but survived their fall, and were secured 
on the spot. Lebas blew his brains out with a pistol. 
Couthon attempted to put an end to his existence by 
stabbing himself, but failed, and crept under a table, 
from which he was dragged out by the national 
guards, who had now rushed up the stairs and broken 
into the room. St. Just continued calm and immova- 
ble, holding a pistol in his hand, but without using it. 
Robespierre had attempted to blow out his brains, but 
bungled in his suicidal attempt, and only broke his jaw. 
He was found upon the floor, at the foot of the table 
under which Couthon was lying. He and Couthon 
being supposed to be dead, were dragged down stairs 
by the heels and across the Place-de-Greve to the 
Quai Pellitier, where it was proposed to throw them 
into the river; but it being discovered, by the light of 
daybreak, that they still breathed, they were stretched 
on planks and carried to the Convention, around 
which cries of " The Constitution forever ! Down with 
the tyrants!" now shook the air. The Convention 
refused that they should be brought in, and they were 
then conveyed to the hall of the Committee, where the 
rest of the conspirators had already been secured. 
Robespierre was laid upon a table, (the same upon 
which he had signed the death-warrant of so many 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 265 

citizens,) with his jaw broken and bleeding. Some 
pieces of pasteboard were placed under his head. He 
had on a blue coat, the same that he wore at the festi- 
val of the Supreme Being, nankeen breeches, and 
white stockings; amidst the tumult, the latter had 
dropped down about his heels. The blood oozed from 
his wound, and he was staunching it with the sheath 
of a pistol. Sorrle persons around him handed to him 
from time to time bits of paper to wipe his face. In 
this state he remained several hours exposed to the 
curiosity and the abuse of a crowd of people.* When 
the surgeon came to dress his wound, he raised him- 
self up, got down from the table, and seated himself 
in an arm-chair. Without a murmur, he underwent a 
painful dressing. With the sulleness of humbled pride, 
he made no reply to any observation.! After his 
wound was dressed, he was conveyed, with the others, 
to the Conciergerie, where he was confined in the 
same cell which had been occupied by Danton, Hebert, 
and the different rivals that he had successively sent 
to the guillotine. 

The decree of outlawry rendered a trial superfluous ; 
It was sufficient to prove the identity. This was 
done, and at four o'clock, in the afternoon of the 28th 
of July, Fouquier Tinville sent them, to the number 
of twenty-one, to execution. An immense crowd 
filled the streets. Robespierre was placed on a cart 
between Henriot and Couthon, whose remains were 
as mutilated as his own. The blood from his jaw 

* " There stretched upon a table, with a bloody and disfigured 
countenance, subjected to the view, to the invectives, and curses of 
the spectators, he beheld the different parties rejoicing over his fall, 
and upbraiding him with all the crimes he had committed. He dis- 
played great insensibility to the excessive pain which he expe- 
rienced." — Mignet. 

t " It did not escape the minute observers of this scene, that he 
still held in his hand the bag which had contained the pistol, and 
which was inscribed with the words Axi Grand Monarque, alluding 
to the sign, doubtless, of the gunsmith who sold the weapon, but sin- 
gularly applicable to the high pretensions of the purchaser." — 
Montgaillard. 

24 



266 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

burst through the bandage and overflowed his dress ; 
his face was ghastly pale. He kept his eyes closed, 
but could not shut his ears against the imprecations 
of the multitude. A woman, breaking from the 
crowd, sprung on the tumbril, clutching the side of it 
with one hand, and exclaiming, " The death of thee, 
Robespierre, gladdens my very heart! Sceleret, go 
down to Hell, covered with the curses of every wife 
and mother in France !" The horsemen, who escort- 
ed the carts, pointed to Robespierre with their swords, 
in order to designate him to the people who crowded 
the windows and house-tops to get a sight of the man 
whose name was associated with so much that was 
terrible. 

At the foot of the scaffold, they stretched him on the 
ground till his turn came. Of the twenty-one exe- 
cuted, he was the last. St. Just died with the courage 
which he had always exhibited. Couthon was de- 
jected. Henriot and the younger Robespierre were 
nearly dead from the effects of their wounds. Ap- 
plause accompanied every descent of the fatal blade. 
Among the twenty-one was Simon, the shoemaker, 
sans-culottic tutor of the Dauphin. Robespierre being 
lifted upon the scaffold, the executioner tore off his 
coat and the bandage from his jaw ; the jaw fell upon 
his breast, and he uttered a yell which froze every 
heart with momentary horror. Clank fell the blade 
of the guillotine, and a loud and continued shout filled 
the air, as it was announced that the tyrant was no 
more. 

General rejoicings now reigned throughout Paris. 
The prisons rang with songs ; people embraced one 
another in a species of intoxication, and paid as much 
as thirty francs for the newspapers containing an 
account of the events which had just happened; and 
though the Convention had not declared the system 
of terror abolished, it was considered as finished with 
Robespierre, to such a degree had he assumed to him- 
self all its horrors. * 

• Thiers; Mignet,etc 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 267 

Thus terminated the Reign of Terror — a period 
fraught with greater political instruction than any of 
equal duration which has existed since the beginning 
of the world. In no former period had the efforts of 
the people so completely triumphed, or the higher 
orders been so thoroughly crushed by the lower. 
The Revolution was good in its beginning, but the 
conduct of it fell into bad hands ; into the hands of 
men, who, consulting private ambition, instead of pub- 
lic welfare, laboured for their individual aggrandize- 
ment, overthrew each other, and, in their feuds, de- 
luged the country with blood. The good and the 
virtuous citizens of France, desirous of a Republic, 
beheld the spectacle of anarchy. Each successive con- 
vulsion had darkened the political atmosphere ; an- 
guish and suffering incessantly increased ; virtue and 
religion seemed banished from the earth ; relentless 
cruelty reigned triumphant. The bright dawn of the 
morning, to which so many millions of Frenchman 
had turned in thankfulness, was soon overcast, and 
darkness, deeper than midnight, overspread the coun- 
try. "But there is a point of depression in human 
affairs," says Hume, " from which the change is neces- 
sarily for the better." Whenever the tendency of 
institutions is erroneous, an under current begins to 
flow, destined to correct their imperfections; when 
they become destructive, it overwhelms them. The 
result of the conspiracy of Robespierre and the muni- 
cipality, proved that this point had been reached in the 
Reign of Terror. * 

It may be asked what would have happened had 
Robespierre been victorious. He must either have 
yielded to the general sentiment that demanded an 
end to the terror system, or have soon met the fate 
we have seen befall him. j " If he aimed at supreme 
power," says Mignet, " after having obtained it, modera- 
tion would have been necessary, and the system of terror, 
which ceased by his fall, would also have ceased with 
his triumph. In my opinion his destruction was in- 

* Alison. t Thiers. 



268 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 



evitable;, he had no organized party; his friends, 
although numerous, were not enrolled in a body 
which could always act in concert ; he possessed only 
the great power derived from the principle of terror ; 
so that not being able to surprise his opponents by 
violence, like Cromwell, he endeavoured to overawe 
them. Fear not succeeding, he tried insurrection. 
But as the support of the Committees gave courage to 
the Convention, so the sections, relying for support on 
the strength of the Convention, naturally declared 
themselves against the insurgents." At the point at 
which Robespierre had arrived, a man wishes to be 
alone — hence he separated from the committee — he 
wished to reign by himself He was devoured by his 
passions, deceived by his hopes and by his fortune, 
which until then had been propitious; he declared 
hostility against his colleagues, and fell by the very 
means which had served to raise him. * 

Of the Terror of his Reign we may form a concep- 
tion, from the following extract from the lists of the 
numbers condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal 
of Paris. 



1793. April 

" May 

" June 

« July 



9 victims. 

9 

14 « 
13 « 



[Robespierre elected into the Committee of Public 
Safety.] 



(( 

n 

(( 

1794. 
(( 



August 

September 

October 

November 

December 

January 

February 

March 



5 

16 

60 including Brissot, etc. 
53 
73 
83 
75 
123 including Hebert, etc. 



* Mignet. 



THE REIGN OP TERROR. 



269 



1794. April 
May 
" June 
July 



263 including Danton, etc. 
324 
. 672 

835 exclusive of Rob. and 
his accomplices. 

Of the number of persons who suffered throughout 
France during the Reign of Terror, we have the fol- 
iowmg account by Prudhomme. 



Nobles 

Noble women 

Wives of mechanics 

Religieuses 

Priests 

Persons, not noble 



1,278 

750 
1,467 

350 

1,135 

13,623 

18,603 Guillotined by sentence of 
Revolutionary Tribunal. 



Women died of premature childbirth 
In childbirth from grief 
Women killed in La Vendee 
Children " « 

Men " « 

Victims at Lyons 
Victims at Nantes, under Carrier 
Of the latter were children shot — 500^ 
drowned— 1,500 
women shot — 260 
drowned — 504 
priests shot— 300 
priests drowned — 460 
nobles « 1,400 

mechanics " 5,300. 



Total, 



-18,603 

3,400 

348 

15,000 

22,000 

900,000 

31,000 

32,000 



> 



1.022.351 



In this enumeration are not comprehended the massa- 
24* 



270 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

ere at Versailles, at the Abbaye, the Carmelites, or other 
prisons, in September 1792, the victims at Avignon, 
those shot at Toulon and Marseilles, or the persons 
slain in the little town of Bedoin, the whole population 
of which perished. 

No words can convey an idea of the impression 
which the overthrow of Robespierre produced in Eu- 
rope. The ardent and enthusiastic in every country 
had hailed the beginning of the French Revolution as 
the dawn of a brighter day in the political world, and 
in proportion to the warmth of their hopes had been 
the bitterness of their disappointment at the terrible 
shade by which it was so early darkened. The fall of 
the tyrant revived these hopes ; the moral laws of 
nature were felt to be still in operation ; the tyranny 
had only existed till it had purged the world of a 
guilty race, and then it was itself destroyed. The 
thoughtful admired the wisdom of Providence which 
had made the wickedness of men the instrument of 
their own destruction , the pious beheld in their fall an 
immediate manifestation of the Divine justice.* 

On the 30th of July, it was proposed in the Conven- 
tion, by Freron, " that we at length purge the earth of 
that monster, Fouquier-Tinville ; that he be sent to lick 
up in hell the blood which he has shed." The proposal 
was carried by acclamation, and the trial of Fouquier 
took place with extraordinary formality, and in the 
most public manner before the Revolutionary Tribunal. 
It developed all the injustice and oppression of that 
iniquitous court; the trial of sixty or eighty prisoners 
in one sitting of three or four hours; the inhuman 
stopping of any defence, and the atrocious celerity of 
the condemnation. He was condemned and fourteen 
of his jurymen along with him. When they were led 
out to execution, great was the indignation of the 
populace against them. 

Carrier, who, at Nantes, had been as terrible as Fou- 
quier at Paris, was also tried, condemned and exe- 

* Alison. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 271 

cuted. Billaud-Varennes and Collot d'Herbois were 
banished from the Republic. 

The citizens of Paris, released from the terror which 
had hung over them, launched themselves into plea- 
sure, and the winter of 1794 was a season most bril- 
liant and gay in the saloons of fashion. The theatres 
became quite the rage. All the passages in plays that 
could be applied to the Reign of T^error were ap- 
plauded ; the air of the Reveil du Peuple was sung, 
the Marseillais Hymn proscribed. In the boxes ap- 
peared the belles and beauties of the time ; in the pit, 
the Gilded Youth or Jeunesse Doree, as they were 
termed, seemed to spite by their pleasures, dress and 
tastes, those coarse, sanguinary Terrorists who it was 
said wanted to stifle all civilization. 

"They have come out, the Gilt Youths, in a kind of 
resuscitated state; they wear crape round the left arm. 
They have suffered much ; their friends guillotined ; 
their pleasures, frolics, superfine collars, ruthlessly re- 
pressed. More, they carry clubs loaded with lead ; in 
an angry manner ; any remnants of Jacobinism they 
fall in with shall fare the worse. Down with Jacobin- 
ism ! No Jacobin hymn or demonstration ! We beat 
down Jacobinism with clubs loaded with lead." * 

The balls were attended with the same eagerness. 
There was one kind, says Thiers, at which no person 
was present who had not lost relatives during the 
Reign of Terror ; it was called the Ball of the 
Victims.f 

It had been the object of the Jacobins to establish 
their principles all through the world, and Citizen 
Genet was sent from France to the United States upon 
an errand to this effect in that country. The Mother 
Club was established at Philadelphia on the 3d of July, 

* Carlyle. 

t "Among the innumerable kind of balls, let the hasty reader 
mark only this single one, the kind they call Bals a Victime. The 
dancers in choice costume, have all crape around the left arm ; to be 
admitted it needs that you have lost a relative under the Terror. 
Peace to the Dead ; let us dance to their memory !" — Carlyle. 



272 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

1793. The officers were David Riitenhouse, president ; 
William Coates, Charles Biddle* vice-presidents ; 
James Hutchinson, Alexander J. Dallas, f Michael 
Lieb, Jonathan Sergeant, David Jackson, committee 
of correspondence ; Israel Israel, treasurer ; and J. 
Porter, P. S. Duponceau, secretaries. 

The following account of Genet's arrival at Phila- 
delphia, and the cool reception he met from General 
Washington, is from the pen of the celebrated William 
Cobbett, published by him in 1796, at which time he 
was a bookseller in that city, and had a store in North 
Second street, opposite Christ Church. "On the 16th 
of May, [1793,] a salvo from the cannons of a frigate 
lying in the port, gave notice that Citizen Genet would 
soon be arrived at a place called Gray's Ferry, about 
three miles distant from the city. Thither all the 
patriotically disposed went to meet him, and escort 
him to his dwelling. For some time after his arrival, 
there was nothing but addressing him and feasting 
him. It may not be amiss to give an account of one 
of these treats ; the memory of such scenes should be 
preserved, and often brought to view. ' On Saturday 
last a republican dinner was given, at Oeller's hotel, to 
Citizen Genet, by a respectable number of French and 
American citizens. After dinner a number of patriotic 
toasts were drunk ; and after the third toast, an ele- 
gant ode, suited to the occasion, composed by a young 
Frenchman, was read by Citizen Duponceau, and 
universally applauded. After a short interval, the 
Marseillais Hymn was, upon the request of the citizens, 
sung by Citizen Bournonville, with great taste and 
spirit, the whole company joining in chorus. Two 
additional stanzas, composed by Citizen Genet, and 
suited to the navy of France, were then called for, 
sung, and encored. The table was decorated with the 
tree and cap of liberty, and with the French and 
American flags. The last toast being drunk, the cap 

* Father of the late Nicholas Biddle. 

t Father of Geo. M. Dallas, Vice President of the United States. 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 273 

of liberty was placed on the head of Citizen Genet, 
and then it travelled from head to head, [just as the 
guillotine has since travelled round France,] each 
wearer enlivening the scene with a patriotic senti- 
ment. These tokens of liberty, and of American and 
French fraternity, were delivered to the officers and 
mariners of the frigate L' Ambuscade, who promised to 
defend them till death.' On the very day that this 
liberty-cap feast took place, the citizen-minister was 
formally received, and acknowledged in his diplomatic 
capacity, by the President of the United States. There, 
indeed, his reception was not quite so warm. He after- 
wards complained that the first object that struck his 
eye [in Washington's parlor,] was a bust of Louis 
XVI. I never heard whether he started back or not, 
at the sight ; but it is certain he looked upon it as an 
ill omen. He saw that he had not to do with a man 
whose friendship shifted with the changes of fortune. 
He saw that the President had not been deceived by 
the calumnies heaped upon the King ; and that, though 
the welfare of his country induced him to receive an 
envoy from the Jacobins, he was far from approving 
of their deeds." * 

In Paris, after the Reign of Terror, the Jacobins, 
though subdued, were not put to rest ; they frequently 
displayed their insurrectionary spirit, and at their 
meetings continued to preach their doctrines. To 
counteract them, the Jeunesse Doree, or Gilt Youth, 
formed themselves into a powerful body, ever ready 
to combat the efforts of the Jacobins, and confirm the 
order which was beginning to prevail. Composed of 
the most respectable families in the capital, they 
almost all numbered a parent or relation among the 
victims of Terror, and had imbibed the utmost horror 
at its sanguinary excesses. To distinguish themselves 
from the rabble, they wore a particular dress, consist- 
ing of a coat without a collar, expressive of their con- 
nexion with those who had suffered by the guillotine. 

* Vide Cobbett's History of the American Jacobins 



274 THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

Instead of arms, they carried short clubs, or canes, 
loaded with lead. Their contests in the Palais-Royal, 
in the garden of the Tuilleries, on the streets, in the 
theatres, and in all public places, were frequent, and 
they contributed by their exertions to confirm and 
direct the public mind. These youths, supported by 
the National Guard, finally marched against the Jaco- 
bin Club at one of its sittings, broke open its doors, 
and dispersed its members. The day after which the 
Convention put a seal on their papers, and terminated 
the existence of the club. [November 12th, 1794.] 

The progress of the Republic, from this period, pre- 
sents a history of unparalelled triumphs on the part 
of the French army, over the allied powers of Europe, 
directed by the genius and great military talents of 
Napoleon Bonaparte. 



THE END. 



LB s m 



x^ 



.^- 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



01 



9 644 1 



09 8 






